Fine Art Transportation and Storage Framework for National Gallery and others

Transport arrangements involving road, sea or airfreight for major multi-partite international exhibitions (typically involving a high number of couriers - physical and virtual) including exhibition tours or high-profile projects involving many months of detailed advanced planning, stringent security measures, requirements set out by institutional lenders and skilful orchestration of scheduling considerations. The Galleries require the Contractor to have substantial expertise in co-ordinating the transport for major international loans, complex exhibitions with numerous Objects; to provide highly skilled technical services, experienced coordination and technical staff; be well resourced for the scope of work with museums both nationally and internationally; to have extensive knowledge of institutional and private Lenders; and substantial experience arranging supervised airfreight and extensive coordination of large numbers of accompanying lender couriers. The Contractor shall have the expertise, authorisations and guarantees required to deal with the temporary or permanent import and export of Objects which may be for temporary exhibition, for long loan, study or acquisition, and the Contractor should have extensive knowledge of Customs and export licensing procedures.

Storage arrangements for complex and one-off collection moves requiring advance planning and skilful orchestration throughout. The Galleries require the Contractor to have substantial experience, expertise in providing and coordinating storage for a wide range of Objects, as reflected by the broad scope of the Galleries collections and projects. The Galleries require the Contractor to be well resourced for the safe storage, tracking, environmental monitoring and management of a wide range of Objects, as well as empty crates and packing materials. The Galleries require the Contractor to have facilities which meet museum and UK Government Indemnity standards for the storage and management of a range of Objects or equipment as appropriate. The Galleries require the Contractor to have viewing room facilities as well as sufficient staff to enable audits, viewings including handling and wrapping of works at agreed times and short notice viewings.