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Insurance |
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Insurance topics are relevant to the values of work for personal, gallery, or group claims. Insurance Issues
Can I insure the value of the work, not just the cost?
Probably not. If you have an artist’s
insurance policy, and if you are a relatively well-established artist, your
chances of being reimbursed for the full value are better. But the younger
and less well know you are, the less likely it will be that an insurance
company will appraise your art at the value you believe it is worth. Please
see question 6 below to get more information on how to prove to your
insurance company what your art really is worth. Most homeowner’s insurance
policies, as well as most artists’ policies, insure the “actual cost of the
loss.” Another way of saying this is that they insure the “fair market
value.” If you have this type of policy, your insurance agent will
determine what a willing buyer of the item (in the condition it was in
before it was lost or damaged) would pay to buy it from a willing seller, if
they were making a cash sale in a free and open market situation. However,
if your art is not well known and there is no easily established market
value for it, your insurance company may not give you what you consider to
be the full value of your art. The biggest problem with trying to cover your
art under a simple homeowner’s policy is that such policies often have caps
on the amount they will pay out for certain categories of items, such as
art. If your homeowner’s policy only covers $1,000 worth of art and your
art worth $5,000 is destroyed, you will only receive $1,000 of that loss
back from your insurance company. This is why it is very important to
discuss with your insurance agent what sort of coverage is right for you,
and to understand what coverage you have. Other policies known as “personal
articles riders” will cover the “replacement value” of your property. If you
have this type of policy, your insurance agent will determine what it would
cost you to replace the item that was lost or damaged. While art is
irreplaceable, this type of policy could cover the value of what your work
would have sold for - or it could cover the amount it cost you to make it.
This is something you should ask your insurance agent about. Under both
types of policies, some insurers deduct depreciation from the fair market or
replacement value, depending on the age or condition of the item lost. Back to TopWhat do I have to prove to make a claim?
To establish what that price would be,
you should probably keep photographs of your art as well as a record of
which prices you have sold which types or sizes of your art. If you are
able to, you should have your art appraised regularly so that you will have
a set value on record which your insurance company will be able to use to
reimburse you. The more well-known an artist is, the easier it is for
experts to appraise their work and place a value on it for the insurance
company to reimburse. For artists who are less well-known or who have not
sold much work, valuation is a much more difficult process. In such cases,
appraisers are assisted by photographs of the art, a record of sales of the
art, and information about prizes the art has won, grants the artist has
received, commissions the artist has received, as well as information about
whether or not the artist is currently selling art, displaying art at a
gallery, or creating art. All this information can help the appraiser to
determine what sort of value an artist’s art has. Also, you should keep a
record of which art is your best art, or is most highly valued. This is
because, in situations where you have lots of art and a few very highly
valued pieces, those pieces will help to raise the price of your art. When
those highly valued pieces are destroyed, the remainder of your art will
lose value, particularly if you do not have much work to begin with.
Artists with few works will often get less value for their lost or damaged
art because there is less of a market for artists with only a few paintings. Back to TopWhat if I worked with a partner and I have insurance?
If you are insured, and you created your
art with a partner, when you make a claim of loss or damage, the insurance
money will be paid to you in the manner discussed in question one, above. Back to TopWhat if I did the work as a student and it is at school?
If you did your work as a student and it
is at school, the school’s insurance policy probably covers it. Before
leaving your art at school, you should ask your instructor about what will
happen if your art is lost or destroyed while there. There are some types of
insurance policies formulated especially for artists. While these policies
tend to be more expensive, they may offer “exhibition coverage,” which will
reimburse you for loss or damage to your art while you are exhibiting it
somewhere other than your home or studio, and may even cover loss or damage
to the art while it is in transport to and from the exhibition. Back to TopIf I leave my work at someone else's house, and the work is on my homeowner's insurance, can I still get paid if something happens to it?There are some types of insurance policies formulated especially for artists. While these policies tend to be more expensive, they may offer “exhibition coverage,” which will reimburse you for loss or damage to your art while you are exhibiting it somewhere other than your home or studio, and may even cover loss or damage to the art while it is in transport to and from the exhibition. Back to TopCan anyone else get insurance on my work?
Owners of your art, as well as gallery
owners displaying your art, can also get insurance on your work. However,
if you are displaying your art at some venue, be certain to discuss their
insurance coverage with them. If you still own your art and are leaving it
at a venue for sale, make sure the venue has insurance that will cover the
full value of your art. Most such venues have business insurance that will
cover art up to a certain amount. You need to make sure that the amount
will cover the cost of your art, and make sure to find out whether other art
is being displayed by the business that will be claimed on the insurance
policy in case of loss. If the insurance policy will not cover the total
value of all the art, your personal articles rider or other insurance policy
may cover the balance of the cost of your art. If someone owns your art and
has insured it, they will get reimbursed for the value of the art if it is
lost or destroyed. However, you will not benefit from their insurance, even
if one of your key pieces is destroyed and you suffer loss because the value
of your other pieces drops. Back to TopIf I make a living by painting, and my equipment is destroyed, can I claim loss of wages?
Depending on what type of insurance
policy you have, i.e. property or casualty insurance or a personal articles
rider, your equipment will be replaced. However, you cannot claim a loss of
wages. If you are employed by someone and cannot work because your
equipment has been destroyed, you should look at your employment contract to
determine whether you will be paid by your employer for the time you are not
working. Back to TopWhat if the work or equipment is in my car, can I still make a claim?
There are some types of insurance
policies formulated especially for artists. While these policies tend to be
more expensive, they may offer “exhibition coverage,” which will reimburse
you for loss or damage to your art while you are exhibiting it somewhere
other than your home or studio, and may even cover loss or damage to the art
while it is in transport to and from the exhibition. Often, your homeowner’s
policy, particularly if it has a personal articles rider, will also
reimburse you for items you had in your car when your car was damaged or
stolen, if those items are also damaged or stolen. Back to TopWhat if I destroyed the work accidentally. can I still make a claim?To a great extent, the answer to this question will depend on your insurance policy. If you are working as an independent contractor, for example, painting murals on buildings, and have contractor’s liability insurance, if the work was “in your control” at the time it was destroyed, it may not be covered. For the contractor’s exception to apply, the work must be in your exclusive care or control. If you are not actually in possession of the work when it is destroyed unless you failed to secure it, you may not be liable for it if someone else had control over it at the time. For example, if you are the only person who has access to the art, even if you are not actually with it when it is destroyed, it could be in your “care, custody, or control” and the insurance contract might exclude it from coverage. However, if someone else was responsible for the art when you are not on the premises, and it is destroyed, it would not be in your “care, custody, or control” and you could be reimbursed for it. Under a homeowner’s policy, your work will most likely be insured if something happens to it while it is in your home, even if it is under your care, custody or control. For example, if you crash your car through your house and your art is destroyed, your homeowner’s policy would likely cover it. If the insurance company can prove, however, that you intentionally destroyed your work, it will not be covered. Under a personal articles rider or artist’s policy, your work will most likely be insured if something happens to it, even if it is under your care, custody, or control. Again, however, if there is some indication that you intentionally destroyed your work, it will not be covered. Again, all of these answers depend heavily on the terms of your individual insurance policy. Back to TopWhat if I destroyed it on purpose (ex. was unhappy with progress), can I still make a claim?If you take an intentional action to destroy your art, you cannot make a claim for your insurance company to cover it. In fact, this may be seen as insurance fraud. Many insurance policies actually include exclusions which hold the insurer immune from having to pay claims that arise from items destroyed while in the insured’s exclusive care, custody, or control. This type of exclusion is included to prevent “moral hazards,” or to prevent insured from being tempted to destroy their own property in order to recover the insurance money for it. Back to TopHow long do I have to make a claim?Like all the other questions, this question is heavily dependent on the terms of your insurance policy. Read your insurance policy to find out who to report your claim to, and when. As a general rule, you should report your claim as soon as you know you have one. Back to Top |
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Contact Information: Please contact K Royal (kroyal@asu.edu), Director of Pro Bono Programs and Student Life at the College of Law at Arizona State University regarding Advocacy for the Arts and/or this website. Ms. Royal will not answer specific questions regarding the arts or individual legal situations, but she can discuss this exciting new program and its merits.
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