As many of you may know, there are currently no best practices in place to regulate commercial fine art storage. In support of our code of ethics, ICEFAT is in stage two of a three-year process to establishing a Best Practices Program.

Our goal is two-fold. The primary goal is to provide guidance to commercial fine art warehouses for increasing security and safety of fine art and other collections of value while in storage. The secondary goal is to produce a list for the fine art industry of ICEFAT certified warehouses that offer premium fine art storage.

The preliminary draft is comprised of nine categories and contains over 200 guidelines. The final version will be approved in September 2008. We believe that this is an essential step in becoming a responsible trade body.

Courtney Maier
Crozier Fine Arts Inc, New York USA