11/26/2025
https://www.chicagogallerynews.com/articles/take-care-expert-tips-for-maintaining-a-collection
Clean Your Art (and your assets will follow).
DENNIS CALLAHAN – Callahan Art & Associates
• Proper and regular dusting is simple and essential. Accumulated dust in conjunction with humidity develops into an aggregate which requires more force and specialized treatments to remove.
• Watch the humidity. Ideally you want 50%. Too little can cause objects to shrink, crack, and dry out. Too much causes art to swell, grow mold, and corrode.
• As electronic media become more common collectors need to realize that they require ongoing, scheduled maintenance to run properly. Dan Flavin’s sculptures require replacement of bulbs & ballasts; Naim June Paik’s sculptures require new tubes and coils. Computers, monitors, and hard drives (copied and replaced) should be inspected every 7 years.
• When we were the contracted Art Handlers for the collection at McCormick Place, they had a fantastic Kerry James Marshall work (Past Times) displayed in a very public space. Every month we checked on it, dusting and looking for any damage. Every year we appraised it for insurance purposes while the value quietly rose. Millions of people walked by it every year. Eventually it was loaned out for a major exhibition of the artist’s work. Before leaving, a Condition Report was executed, and it was found to be in excellent condition, despite its public placement. It sold shortly thereafter for over $21,000,000, due in part because of its condition. Had it suffered any damage, as many works in public spaces do, its value would have been diminished.