COMPENDIUM: INSURANCE POLICIES for artists and art collections

Below you can find links to information about INSURANCE for:
  • Artists based in the UK
  • Artists working from home 
  • ​Commissions and Public Art
  • Art Galleries and Art Fairs 
  • Trustee Liability Insurance - for Art Societies, Clubs 
  • Art Collections based in the UK​
Over time, I aim to try and crowd-source recommendations about different insurers - and which to avoid.  

​If you have any specific recommendations please email me (see form at end)
 DISCLAIMER: One has to start somewhere when inviting insurance quotes - HOWEVER
(1) Inclusion of a link to a website does NOT endorse or otherwise indicate the organisation provides a reputable and effective service - although I aim, with your help over time, to compile a useful and comprehensive compendium of crowd-sourced recommendations about different insurers - and which to avoid.  
(2) I'm also not responsible in any way for the services provided at the other end of a link or advert
(3) I don't know which adverts you see (Google tailors them to you and YOU control what you see) and I do not specifically endorse any services offered by advertisements.
YOU ARE RECOMMENDED TO
1. OBTAIN A NUMBER OF QUOTES
2. REVIEW COMPARATIVE COVER OFFERED
BEFORE
​3. DECIDING ON WHICH INSURANCE POLICY YOU BUY

​Insurance for Artists based in the UK
​

These are links to sites which state they provide insurance for artists in the UK

There are two main routes to insurance tailored for artists
  • use an artists organisation that has negotiated good rates via a broker for specialised insurance for art and artists
  • use a specialist arts insurance broker - and get a quote direct​​​
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INSURANCE FOR ARTISTS - ORGANISED BY ARTISTS' ORGANISATIONS

Artists's Organisations very often do "deals' with insurance brokers/underwriters to provide an easy facility to make sure artists have appropriate insurance cover at a reasonable rate. Those who have lots of members can usually negotiate a lower rate than if you go direct to the broker
Organisations are listed in alphabetical order below.

The name of the insurance broker they do business with is highlighted in red.
A-n The Artists Information Company

In the UK, a-n are a very helpful resource on all matters related to insurance for professional artists - IF you are a member. They've partnered with brokers Hencilla Canworth to develop a range of options and try and secure a better deal for professional artists.
  • Insurance Section - a-n - they have developed a range of insurances for Artist and Arts organiser members. Covers Artists' Public and Products Liability insurance (PPL) - £5m PPL insurance cover is included with Artist + AIR membership; ​Artists' insurance policy (AIP) | Insurance | AIR | a-n - For Artist + AIR members wishing to buy additional insurance such as for artwork and materials, studio and contents, and employers’ liability; ​One-off Exhibition Policy - available to members of a-n only; brokers Hencilla Canworth Ltd and a-n have developed this One-off exhibition insurance policy for practising visual and applied artists wishing to insure their work whilst in transit to and from and whilst on display at an exhibition.
  • Creative Freelance Insurance Policy for members of a-n's Arts Organisers scheme | Hencilla Canworth - Low Cost Public Liability & Professional Indemnity Insurance For Self-Employed Arts Professionals. Also available to those with an insured occupation for the purposes of this insurance i.e. Directing, curating, commissioning, managing, coordinating, producing, acting as agent for, consulting on, or assisting with the creating of arts and cultural activities including but not limited to public and community art, arts education and interpretation, galleries and exhibitions, festivals and events, studios and workshops, digital developments, professional development and training, public relations, marketing and audience development, fundraising and sponsorship.
  • Get covered: why artists need to have insurance and how a-n can help | News | a-n - a-n's Director outlines why making sure you're properly covered is essential for every practising artist.

Working with specialist brokers Hencilla Canworth,  a-n has developed a range of insurances including professional indemnity and public liability for Artist and Arts organiser members based in UK.

Artists Union
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Axisweb

Axis is a UK registered charity. It works to enable the public to have a better understanding and appreciation of artists. It works with members and partners to promote artists, champion their talents and create new opportunities. They have different classes of members. Being a member means being able to access a wide range of benefits to support artists throughout their career cycle.​
Guild Society for Artists
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GSA Insurance Scheme - the Guild Society for Artists have partnered with Hiscox to provide insurance for artists IF you are a member of the Guild.
  • It provides automatic £5,000,000 Public & Products liability and £5,000,000 Professional Indemnity insurance cover.
  • Other requirements of professional artists are covered through their comprehensive scheme - but this attracts a fee albeit with a 10% discount.
The Society for All Artists
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The Society For All Artists (SAA) offers
Group Insurance for Artists - at FIVE different levels of insurance cover for paintings at exhibitions (it excludes 3D artwork).:
  • Standard - up to £1,000 (UK only)
  • Silver - up to £4,000 (UK only)
  • Gold - up to £10,000 ((UK & ROI only))
  • Platinum - up to £30,000  (UK & ROI only).
  • Overseas - exhibition cover only while in the UK
​The SAA policy is arranged by Towergate based in Warwick. Underwriters are Sportscover Europe Limited. Security is provided by Amlin syndicate at Lloyds of London.
The SAA have negotiated £10 million of third party public liability insurance package, which is included as a membership benefit for all UK art club members. If you hold meetings, events, exhibitions, outings, demonstrations or workshops in your homes, the village hall, church hall, school room or any other place indoors or outside, art committee members could be liable if your group does not have third party public liability insurance.
It also offers ART CLUB MEMBERSHIP cover of £10 million of Third Party Public Liability Insurance.
  • Exhibition Insurance- Insurance offered related to paintings in exhibitions and third party liability. Different levels of insurance offered to members for different premiums. Those exhibiting regularly have recommended the Gold Level to me which provides cover for paintings valued at up to £10,000 in an exhibition. A Platinum level is also available offering insurance up to £30k. Overseas members can also get insurance for their art in exhibitions - but only while that art is in the UK
  • SAA | Insurance | Art Clubs
    Offers Third Party Public Liability Insurance, directors and officers insurance and cover against libel and slander.

​This is the Fact Sheet about the SAA Group Insurance Policy (as at July 2019)
Scottish Artists Union
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INSURANCE FOR ARTISTS - ORGANISED BY INSURANCE BROKERS
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This involves the artist dealing with the insurance broker or underwriter direct - and not via a third party art organisation (see above for those)
Specialist Arts Insurance Brokers
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Hencilla Canworth are an insurance intermediary with a specialism in the arts (artists, actors, musicians etc). They provide Comprehensive insurance for practising visual and applied artists. Available cover includes Artwork & Materials Insurance, Studio Contents / Buildings, Business Interruption and Employers' & Public Liability. They also provide Creative Freelance Insurance and Insurance for Gallery / Exhibition Insurance; Art dealers and Directors & Officers Liability / Trustees Indemnity
  • Hencilla Canworth - The Artists Insurance Policy - covers artwork (in progress, completed, in storage, transit and at exhibition), studio, business interruption, employers liability and public liability. Some options available to a-n members only

Love Art Insurance | Brownhill provide Art Professionals Insurance cover for a range of professionals in the art world.
  • Art Conservator Insurance / Art Restorer Insurance  includes cover for customer goods in your custody/control

  • Artist Insurance relates to Stock (works of art, collectables, gallery stock and reference library) against loss or damage whilst at your premises, at exhibitions, trade fairs and auction houses (50% of art sum insured free of charge), at other locations, in transit worldwide (including war and terrorism as per relevant International Underwriting Association clauses) plus Public (Third Party) Liability, Business Equipment, Goods in Transit, Money and Personal Assault and Employers Liability
Insurance Brokers and Companies​ - for Artists working as sole traders and selling art
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  • ​Craft Insurance Scheme | Ian H Wallace Ltd (underwritten by Hiscox) - specialist insurance re. individual craftsmen, artists, artisans, sole traders, partnerships, Ltd companies, craft groups, membership clubs, associations and societies in the UK (only) including public liability. Includes a helpful FAQs page. PLUS 
    • ​a family run business, with over 30 years experience in offering insurance to crafters
    • no call centres, just two ladies who answer all the calls. 
    • Online access and options to pay monthly with 0%. 
    • (Note: I have an artist friend who recommends them)
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  • Direct Line Arts and Crafts Insurance - Customisable insurance for your arts and crafts business; cover if you work at home, in your studio, selling at fairs or online.
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  • Public Art Online - Insurance for Artists - provides details of insurance companies offering either public liability insurance and/or professional indemnity for artists and public art consultants [IMPORTANT NOTE - this website does NOT have a security certificate and hence I am unable to check their current website. I do NOT recommend you share any personal information until such time as they have a proper robust security certificate for their website]
 
Public Liability Insurance for Artists
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Many include public liability within their insurance cover for artists - but for those looking for a specific public liability quote....​
Your duty of care in relationships with members of the public who are involved in the making and presentation of your art means that you must take all reasonable steps to ensure that they suffer no personal injury or damage to their property because of that involvement.
Constructaquote


See also more brokers under the Working from Home section below
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The awards that may be made as a result of a successful claim can be catastrophic but even the legal costs of defending the most spurious claim can cause severe financial hardship.
Blackfriars Group
Common types of (public liability) claims
  • Spilling paint/ink on a member of public’s property (i.e. clothes, possessions, etc.)
  • Someone tripping over your easel and injuring themselves
  • Stepping back to view your drawing and knocking over and breaking someone’s property behind you
  • Ashburnham
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​Insurance - Working from Home - in the UK
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Working from home may
  • involve activities not covered by your domestic insurance.
  • invalidate your domestic buildings and contents insurance

For example: third party public liability arises if people have an accident in your home (eg during tuition provided at home; visitors to your home studio). They are NOT there as domestic visitors and covered by you home insurance. They are there because of your business and hence you're NOT covered by your house insurance - and indeed you may be invalidating your house insurance by running a business from home

Then there's
  • employers’ liability insurance - if you employ anybody to help you
  • cover for all business oriented equipment and stock kept at home (i.e. non-domestic contents)
  • cover for goods in transit or products liability
DO NOT FORGET TO READ THE SMALL PRINT!
Even if you secure insurance for working from home, you have not finished.

Check whether the domestic insurer for your house and contents is happy with this. I recommend you start by reading all the small print and the statements you make in agreeing to insurance cover to ensure that one does not invalidate the other!

Why? If you don't tell your insurer re buildings and contents that you work from home and you make a claim in the future, the insurance company may decide not to pay out.

Check whether any agreement or discounted price ties you to an insurer for a specific time period longer than a year.

Why? You pay far more than you need to for longer than you need to.

Don't forget - dealing with the insurance aspects does not mean you have addressed all the other relevant matters such as
  • planning permission;
  • mortgagor or leaseholder consent and
  • tax implications on sale of your house 
  • see Selling Art from Home for further discussion of these aspects
REFERENCE: INSURANCE PROVIDERS

A number of the well-used comparison sites can highlight those who provide insurance for working from home
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I'm trying to develop a listing of insurers who deal with artists working from home

In addition, these came from a discussion in the Facebook Art Fair Buddies Group

Insurance for art by International Artists in exhibitions in the UK
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One insurance policy below will provide insurance for the art of overseas artists while it is in an exhibition in the UK - see Society for All Artists
If you exhibit internationally DO NOT ASSUME that your insurance covers you. Check it out!

Insurance - Commissions / Public Art - in the UK
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A very specialist area of art insurance relates to:
  • the delivery of artwork for corporate commissions and/or
  • public art installations

You cannot assume that an insurer covering art will automatically provide this cover.

As an artist you also need to be very clear as to who is liable (the artist or the commissioner) for what aspects of damage covered by insurance
e.g. failure to deliver to 'time is of the essene' deadline and damage to the art after installation.

If you are liable as an artist then the cost of the insurance premiums rolling forward need to be prived into the quotation given for the piece.
Providers of insurance for public art activities

Axisweb claims its public liability insurance across the EU for up to £5 million (underwritten by Hiscox)  covers a range of art-making practices and
Exhibitions, Events, Commissions, Socially engaged art, Participatory projects, Performances, Public art, Project, Management, Education, Workshops / talks, Studio practice, Residencies, Research.
Axisweb professional indemnity is worldwide cover excluding claims brought in the USA and Canada.

Insurance: Art Galleries and Art Fairs in the UK
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This section is about commercial insurance specifically designed for art galleries.

Many artists run art galleries alongside their own practice and, if you do, you must think about the implications for insurance cover - specifically in relation to
  • third parties and
  • negligence.
Live events and multi-day festivals present a very specific set of risk exposures – and now your digital and online risks can expose you globally.  
La Playa
INSURANCE FOR GALLERIES, DEALERS AND ART FAIRS
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Commercial Galleries Insurance | Axa Art Insurance - two types of policy:
  • one which deals specifically with dealer's stock and
  • a second which deals with stock and employers and Public Liability and Loss of Income. Wording in Policy cover documents available to download

Art Gallery Insurance | Alan-Thomas - bespoke art gallery insurance product can be tailored to suit the individual needs of galleries in the UK;
  • covers a wide range of relevant options e.g. goods in transit; fairs and exhibitions; business interruption

Brownhill "Loveartinsurance" - provides comprehensive support for businesses in the art trade, helping customers look at their security and contents needs and risks - and a range of business insurance for art businesses. .  
Art Gallery Insurance | Clegg Gifford - covers legal liability to clients, visitors and damage to artwork resulting from negligent acts. Gets a high rating from reviews (see bottom of page)

La Playa provides ​
Simply Business - Art Gallery Insurance for public liability and employers insurance but EXCLUDES insurance of artwork
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Insurance for moving art
  • One-off Exhibition Policy - available to members of a-n only; brokers Hencilla Canworth Ltd and a-n have developed this One-off exhibition insurance policy for practising visual and applied artists wishing to insure their work whilst in transit to and from and whilst on display at an exhibition.
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Trustee Liability Insurance - for Art Societies, Clubs etc 
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Those selected or invited to fulfil the role of Trustees and Directors of an art organisation need to understand that they have a number of responsibilities. These include:
  • A duty of care and skill as trustees, which includes an obligation to obtain external professional advice where appropriate.
  • Ensuring compliance with all relevant legal matters i.e. the scheme of governance approved for the charity, charity law generally and regulation by the Charity Commission (and possibly other regulators as well), 
  • Compliance with all Companies Act legislation in relation to any trading activities through a company
  • Ensuring the charity is solvent by demonstrating prudence in management of the charity’s finances 
  • On a personal level to act with integrity and avoid conflicts of interests.
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All art organisations need relevant and expert professional advice in relation to the insurance required to minimise the risks of personal liability of trustees, directors, governors, committee members, officers or employees of a charity, club, association and not for profit organisation .
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Without the cover, a trustee's personal assets could be at risk if a claim was to be made that contested a decision they made on behalf of the organisation.
Zurick Insurance
Trustee liability insurance provides financial cover against the PERSONAL liability and liability of trustees, directors, governors, committee members, officers or employees of a charity, club, association and not for profit organisation arising from errors or omissions they make in the management and administration of the organisation / funds / serious incidents. The insurance relates to
  • the costs associated with a claim against the organisation and named individuals or trustees, directors, governors, committee members, officers or employees
  • the costs of defending that claim

It covers all those insured by the policy eg trustees, governors, directors, committee members, officers or employees, for defence costs incurred during a claim and awards made against an organisation.
Serious incident reporting
The ‘serious incident reporting’ regime was introduced was by the Charity Commission in the 2007 Annual Return Regulations. It applies to all charities exceeding £25,000 gross income for the year.

From  2007 - s 38 of the Charities Act 2006 gives the Charity Commission the same discretionary power as the High Court.

This relieves charity trustees of personal liability for a loss to their charity that was attributable to honest mistakes made by them
  • as long as there was no lack of ‘due care’ on the part of that trustee.
  • i.e. negligence and poor management/oversight means the charity is NOT covered but genuine mistakes are
  • Charities with trustees: you’ll need charity trustee indemnity insurance; this usually includes directors and officers of the organisation as well as the trustees.
  • Organisations limited by guarantee: having directors rather than trustees will need directors’ and officers’ liability insurance.
  • Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited
ESSENTIAL READING FOR ALL TRUSTEES:
Providers of Trustee Indemnity Insurance
  • Trustee Liability insurance | Ecclestiastical - covers the personal trustee liability and liability of officers, employees or voluntary workers arising from errors or omissions they make in the management and administration of the organisation. A range of limits of indemnity are available from £250,000 to £2,000,000 in any one period of insurance. 
 
  • Trustees indemnity insurance | Endsleigh - provides protection for trustees, employees, volunteers and directors (as well as the charity itself) against claims brought against them for actual or alleged wrongful acts that have placed the charity's or an individual's assets at risk.
 
  • Protecting Your Trustees | Gallagher - the biggest personal risk in charities rests with trustees who can be held liable for committing a wrongful act. As individuals or as a board, they are collectively responsible.
   

Insurance: Art Collections based in the UK
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THis section provides information about insurance for artwork and Art Collections

You need to read your home insurance policy and determine whether or not it covers fine art. It's entirely possible that it wholly excluded or subject to some sort of other restriction

If you envisage you will ever make a claim you must have good records  and ideally these MUST be available away from your home (eg in the cloud). On your computer is not much good if it's currently under water!
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TIPS:
  • Be aware that an art collection grows to the point where its value exceeds the cover provided by general domestic insurance 
  • Avoid underinsurance due to many small changes over time - inform your insurer of new acquisitions within 60 days of your purchase
  • review valuations periodically - to take account of changes in the value of artwork by different artists
  • insure for retail replacement value (if appropriate)
REFERENCE
  • Should your artwork be insured? | Forbes - it's estimated that the premium value of insured art globally was somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion. If those estimates are right, there's a lot of uninsured art out there
  • Top tips for insuring artwork | Financial Times - Ensure you have the right cover for collectables
INSURERS
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  • AXA ART: Who We Insure - Through our network of appointed brokers, we provide insurance coverage to owners of fine art and collectible objects in every active area of collecting.



  • Insurance for Art Collections | Hiscox - This type of insurance covers your ‘visual arts’ collection;  basically, flat works that hang on the wall. (oils, watercolours, gouache, pastel and mixed mediums, sketches, drawings and artists’ prints, like etchings, silk screen prints, woodcuts, engravings, lithographs and printed posters).  
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  • Art Insurance | Hiscox UK - Home Insurance which doesn't require separate cover for each individual piece and allows you to display your art.

What this site does NOT cover

PLEASE NOTE:
  • I do NOT provide insurance 
  • I do NOT sell policies
  • I do NOT provide quotes
  • I do NOT offer advice as to the most appropriate insurance strategy or policies for YOU. Guidelines are generic i.e. general.
  • I am NOT liable for any problems you have as a result of reading this page or any site it links to. YOU make the decisions not me.
I'm in the same boat as you - just looking to see what's out there.

The only difference between you and me is that I created a website which tries to pull relevant information together in one place!  

This site might help you but it can't provide definitive answers to all situations. I also cannot advise you on your personal situations

Only you can satisfy yourself as to what insurance cover you need and whether the policy you buy does all it needs to.
PLEASE NOTE
I don't know which adverts you see (Google tailors them to you and YOU control what you see)
I do not specifically endorse any services offered by advertisements.
I'm also not responsible in any way for the services provided at the other end of a link.

Would you care to share?
​

QUERIES:  
Do you have any queries about insurance for art and artists - IN THE UK?
(I can't promise to be able to provide answers but your questions will help inform the development of this page.)


RECOMMENDATIONS:  
Do you know of any UK companies or UK websites which you would be happy to recommend?
​

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If you think this site would be useful to other UK artists you know please share it - social icons can be found below and at the top of the page.

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