Moving & Storing Framed Art

Framed pictures are damaged in a move in three ways. The glass breaks and its pieces cut the picture. The corners of the frame take a knock and the joints open. Something hard presses into the front. Storage adds a fourth risk, which is damp. A few low-cost materials and a set order of packing deal with all four.

What you need

• Painter's tape, the kind that peels off cleanly
• Cardboard corner protectors, or strips of cardboard folded around each corner
• Clean plain paper and flat sheets of stiff cardboard
• Bubble wrap
• Picture boxes, or more flat cardboard and packing tape
• A marker pen

Glass, acrylic or no glazing

Glazing means the clear sheet at the front of a frame. What you do first depends on which kind your frame has. Our guide to acrylic vs glass explains how to tell them apart.

• Glass. Run strips of painter's tape across the glass from corner to corner and from side to side. If the glass breaks, the tape holds the pieces in place, so they cannot slide across the picture. Keep the tape on the glass only, because tape can lift the finish of a frame.
• Acrylic. Acrylic does not shatter, so it needs no tape, and tape can leave marks on it. It scratches easily. Cover it with a clean soft cloth or a sheet of clean paper before any other wrapping.
• A canvas with no glazing. Nothing should press on the paint. Cut a sheet of stiff cardboard larger than the painting, so that it rests on the frame or on the edges of the canvas and leaves the painted surface free. Bubble wrap pressed against paint can leave its pattern in the surface.

A painting on canvas is packed so that nothing presses on the paint. The Embrace of Wind, an oil on canvas from our gallery, 70 by 100 cm, shows a pale figure with long brown hair spinning among clouds, and cardboard cut larger than the canvas would keep its surface free.

Packing one frame, step by step

1. Protect the glazing as described above.
2. Fit a protector on each of the four corners.
3. Lay a sheet of stiff cardboard over the front.
4. Wrap the whole frame in bubble wrap and tape the wrap to itself.
5. Slide the frame into a picture box, or place it between two sheets of cardboard cut larger than the frame and tape the edges.
6. Write "glass" and "this side is the front" on the outside.

Pack each frame on its own. Two frames wrapped together rub against each other for the whole trip.

In the vehicle

• Upright. Stand frames on their long edge. A frame that lies flat under other things carries their weight on its glass.
• Face to face, back to back. Stand two frames with their fronts together and a sheet of cardboard between them. The hanging hardware on one back then cannot press into the front of the next.
• Held in place. Stand the frames against a flat side of the vehicle, with the largest at the back of the row, and wedge them so they cannot fall forward when the vehicle brakes.
• Out of the heat. Take framed art out of a closed vehicle in hot weather as soon as you arrive.

A large canvas can also travel off its stretcher bars, rolled. Our guide to shipping a canvas rolled covers when that is safe.

The largest piece goes at the back of the row. Searching for Monad is an acrylic on canvas, 120 by 80 cm, showing figures in white suits bending over wooden boxes in a field, and a painting this wide would stand on its long edge behind the smaller frames.

Storing framed art

• Choose a dry room inside the home. A closet or a spare room keeps a steady temperature. Attics, garages and basements swing between hot, cold and damp. Our guide to framing art for humid rooms explains what damp does inside a frame.
• Keep frames off the floor. Stand them on wooden blocks or a low shelf, so a spill or a small leak passes under them.
• Keep them upright, face to face and back to back, with cardboard between, as in the vehicle.
• Keep them away from outside walls. A cold wall can make the nearest frame damp.
• Cover them with cloth or paper. A clean cotton sheet keeps dust off and lets air through. Plastic sealed tightly around a frame for months can hold moisture against it.
• Look at them a few times a year. Check for a damp smell, ripples in paper and spots on the back.

After the move

Unwrap framed art in the first days in the new home. Check each frame before it goes on the wall:

• the glazing, for cracks and chips at the edges
• the four corners, for gaps
• the wire and its fixings, by pulling on them firmly
• the picture, to see that it has stayed in place behind the mat

Peel painter's tape off the glass slowly and soon, because tape left on for a long time is harder to remove. Our guide to hanging hardware helps you choose fixings for the new wall, and caring for framed art covers cleaning once everything is up.

The rules in one table

If something did break, our workshop pages on glass replacement and frame repair describe how each is put right.