Art Insurers Start to Assess the Impact of the Los Angeles Wildfires
As fires raged across Los Angeles this week, due to the ongoing Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires, numerous artists, collectors, and arts professionals have reported losing their homes and art collections in the affected areas. While it is still too early to truly assess the damage, art insurers and conservators told ARTnews that they expect it to be extensive. “This is going to be substantial and possibly one of the most impactful art losses ever in America,” Simon de Burgh Codrington, fine arts insurance specialist and managing director at Risk Strategies, told ARTnews in a phone interview. The devastating losses, de Burgh Codrington added, are expected “to be much more impactful than Sandy was to the art world.” Related Articles Similarly, Christopher Wise, vice president of Risk Strategies, told ARTnews, “There are huge amounts of fine art value under threat at the current moment. Many, many billions of fine art.” While Risk Strategies insures “many collectors, museums, galleries, artists, and warehouses throughout Los Angeles,” according to Wise, many have already moved artworks into safer locations …
