The art market is booming. Price records are being broken not only worldwide, but also in Poland. So far the most expensive painting in Poland has been sold for 2 million zlotys. Auction houses are also recording an increase in sales – we are buying more and more rarities [1]. Therefore, it is worth knowing how to store them to make them a safe investment.
The art market is getting stronger
It is difficult to make estimates which would objectively refer to the private market and the value of works of art which are in the hands of collectors. These are astronomical amounts, as evidenced by the results of global auctions. In 2015, a Paul Gauguin canvas reached the dizzying price of $300 million and ended up in the hands of a Qatari sheik [2]. The art market in Poland, although it has not yet reached global proportions, is slowly approaching them and becoming professionalised. According to experts, the circle of conscious collectors is still expanding. They buy unique pieces not only in Poland, but also abroad. Many of these people combine passion with business and treat it as an investment. Such assets therefore require protection not only against theft, but also against possible fire.
Safe storage of artwork in the home
Paintings often adorn the home and are accessible to guests. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the property is adequately secured in the form of monitoring, roller blinds or a home automation system that will make the presence of household members apparent. Exceptional and very valuable rarities, however, are usually kept away from the sight of outsiders. Collectors keep them in special rooms adapted for this purpose or in safes. A wall safe, a floor safe or a safe room protected by an armoured door can be planned during the construction phase of a house. In some residences, a room cast in reinforced concrete is planned in the house design, which is additionally protected by a vault door. These are used to store exceptional works of art of very high value or in larger quantities. In this case, the resistance to burglary depends on the value of the rarities and is found in classes: S2, I, II, III and higher. What is particularly important in this case, armoured doors are also resistant to fire. You can successfully adjust their size and even order them to individual dimensions.
Check the home safes at Hartmann Tresore
A home vault?
However, there are no obstacles to using a similar security method in an existing building. In such situations, a so-called "safe room" is separated from a larger room, made up of special interconnected panels, which are separated from the rest of the house by a vault door. The works of art are equally safe there, and the additional advantage of this solution is that it can be dismantled and moved to another place.
More often, floor safes or wall safes are chosen, for which investors plan space already at the stage of designing the house. This is because their installation requires the preparation of a special niche and a wall and floor of the appropriate thickness. This type of protection is available in various sizes, which makes it possible to adjust it to individual needs. However, they are only available in anti-burglary versions. They can also be concealed without any major problems, so that they are invisible to guests and house staff and there is no fear that a thief will take them out of the property. Investing in this type of security is therefore a guarantee of safety and peace of mind.
Read another text, too: Wall or floor safe – which one to choose?
Don't forget the alarm
If you want comprehensive protection, you should consider installing an alarm system. Apart from advanced locking systems, safes and armoured doors intended for the protection of works of art should be additionally equipped with installations allowing them to be connected to the alarm network of the building. It is even better if they have a so-called "silent alarm" function. In the event of a robbery, it allows the safe to be opened in such a way that the appropriate services are notified, which, alerted to the robbery, manage to catch the assailants during or immediately after the robbery. It is necessary to remember about such protection of the collected collections that does not threaten the safety of household members. Equipping a safe or a safe room with an alarm has a double meaning. Firstly, it increases the security level of the stored works of art and their owner, and secondly, it increases the permissible limit of values that can be deposited in a given safe in accordance with the law, which has already been mentioned in another article.
This may interest you: 5 questions before building a safe and vault room
What do you need to consider when choosing an alarm installation?
[1] http://life.forbes.pl/najdrozsze-obrazy-w-polsce-rynek-sztuki-ma-sie-coraz-lepiej,artykuly,193662,1,1.html#
[2] http://rynekisztuka.pl/2016/01/15/raport-rynek-sztuki-2015/
