The owner art adviser is aboard and asks you to help carry a framed painting from the skylounge down to the main deck. You are wearing a stew uniform with buttoned cuffs and a watch, you have a phone in your hand, the stairs have a rug at the bottom, and no one has said where the painting is going. Four things in that sentence are about to cause a claim.
Before You Touch Anything
Handling is the single most common cause of damage to art, and almost all of it is preventable in the two minutes before the lift.
- Ask first. The interior does not move art on its own initiative. Movement is authorised by the chief stew and normally supervised by the art adviser or a professional handler.
- Plan the route. Walk it. Doors open and hooked back, rugs lifted, floor clear, lift called, someone at the far end.
- Know the destination. A padded, prepared, level surface must exist before the work leaves the wall.
- Prepare yourself. Clean dry hands, no rings, no watch, no bracelets, no lanyard, no pens or phone in a chest pocket, sleeves secured, ID badge stowed.
Gloves: Which and When
| Situation | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Frames, gilding, metal, glass, ceramic | Nitrile gloves | Blocks skin oils and salts; good grip |
| Silver, bronze, polished metal | Nitrile gloves | Fingerprints etch metal surfaces |
| Heavy, smooth or slippery objects | Clean bare hands, washed and dry | Grip and feel beat a dropped object |
| Cotton gloves | Generally avoid | They snag on gilding and reduce grip. A dropped object is worse than a fingerprint |
Never touch the surface of a painting, a print, a photograph or an unglazed drawing with anything, gloved or not.
The Lift Itself
- Two hands, always. One hand on the side of the frame, one underneath, taking the weight from below.
- Two people for anything large, heavy, awkward or valuable. Agree who calls the moves and speak out loud.
- Never lift by an extremity. Not by the top of a frame, not by ornament, not by a sculpture arm, handle, spout, neck or limb. Support the mass, from underneath, at its strongest point.
- Carry a painting face inward against your body, upright, never flat, never under an arm.
- Set it down onto a prepared padded surface, resting against a wall at a slight angle, never leaning on its ornament.
Onboard Notes
- Plan the route, clear the floor, know where it is going down. Then lift.
- Two hands, two people, from underneath, never by a projecting part.
- Nitrile, not cotton, and nothing at all on the painted or paper surface.
- If nobody has authorised the move, the move does not happen. Ask the chief stew.