Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

PicturePack Produces a Picture-perfect Price for fine art shipping

Hours of work for art dealers and collectors will be eliminated at a stroke with the launch today of PicturePack, Cadogan Tate’s instant online quotation service for shipping fine art.

This internet-based service for the shipping of pictures of all shapes, sizes and values was launched today and Cadogan Tate Fine Art Managing Director Graham Enser, believes it will revolutionise the sale of art.

PicturePack allows dealers to provide clients with a price for shipping in seconds and for an art dealer eliminates the waiting time between closing the sale and knowing the shipping cost for certain.

“In the past, providing a quotation to ship a piece of art may have taken a number of days to calculate and then send back to the client but the Cadogan Tate new PicturePack service is not only instant but paperless,” Mr Enser said.

“PicturePack gives the dealer the tool to close the sale much sooner than previously. The beauty of this new service is that it’s available instantly, 24 hours and day and seven days a week, giving us an advantage over our competitors whose offices are typically open nine to five Monday to Friday.

Halcyon Gallery Head of Art Services, David Jenkins said he wasn’t aware of another quick and easy product like PicturePack and mentioned that getting a shipping pricing matrix out of some shipping companies was a challenge.

“It certainly is a time saving device that will help us to close a deal much more quickly than in the past, when shipping quotes could take up to three days,” he said.

The PicturePack process is incredibly simple. As long as the art collector or dealer knows the longest length of the piece of art, the country it is being shipped to (and from where), the value and whether insurance is required, in seconds the PicturePack website provides a price for the packing, handling, shipping, insurance, customs and legal formalities.

By simply completing six online questions, the website calculates the cost and emails the quotation instantly to your specified email address. The website service – which was three years in careful development – is also capable of calculating the cost of shipping a consignment of several paintings to the same destination. For shipments within Europe, the website will even determine the VAT payable.

“Once you have provided the appropriate details, if you are happy to proceed with the order the website will take you directly to the Cadogan Tate main website to complete the transaction and your piece of art will be on its way to its new home in no time through our partners at FedEx,” Graham Enser explained.

The idea for PicturePack came about five years ago when Graham and his colleagues were trying to come up with a simpler way of quoting for art logistics.

“The launch of PicturePack is an exciting time for Cadogan Tate adding another dimension to the quality service we provide our fine art customers.”

Currently the service is available only to works of art originating in London, but within six weeks PicturePack will also be able to offer the services from New York, Paris and Nice.

To use this new, instant quotation, picture-packing and shipping service log onto www.picturepack.net.

For more information about Cadogan Tate, please visit www.cadogantate.com or call +44 (0) 207 819 6600

Cadogan Tate started life with one van delivering fine art and furniture in London 30 years ago. The company now employs 250 staff and has 80 trucks and offices around the world – serving clients through four business divisions: residential, business, fine art and international relocation. Cadogan Tate’s philosophy is to set industry standards in its approach to planning and executing removals that cause minimal disruption for clients. All Cadogan Tate’s staff receive specialist training, ensuring clients benefit from a team of experts committed to the safe and stress-free moving of treasured and valuable possessions: 92% of Cadogan Tate’s customers are repeat business or the result of personal recommendation.