Art Risk Management & Insurance

In today’s complex art industry, all stakeholders should consider whether solid risk management should now weigh in favor of using third-party risk transfer tools versus continuing to self-insure against such a risk adopt new ownership standards.

Art risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and taking steps to reduce or eliminate the risks associated with artwork, counterparts, and business practices. It includes understanding the art market, art history, and art law; conducting due diligence on artworks and transactions; and adopting best practices to reduce exposure to art risks.

Art risk management is a growing field, as the art market has become increasingly globalized and complex. The current economic climate has also brought increased scrutiny to the art market, as investors seek alternative assets that are less volatile than stocks and bonds. As a result, art risk management is an important tool for both art collectors and dealers/galleries to protect their investments and minimize their exposure to risk.

Modernizing Risk Management in the Art Market

This session will look at modernizing risk management in the art market and how the industry should apply forensic due diligence to transactions and ensure they view all business activities through a lens of strategic risk and reputation.

Panel Discussion: Lawrence M. Shindell, Laura Patten, Ronald Fiamma, Mary Pontillo, and Dennis M. Wade

This panel is made of Lawrence M. Shindell of LMI Group; Laura Patten of Deloitte; Ronald Fiamma of AIG; Mary Pontillo of DeWitt Stern/Risk Strategies; and Dennis M. Wade of WCM. Together, they will discuss:

• Applying a holistic data-driven approach across art work, counterparties and business practices
• The risk will never be zero but what is an acceptable and achievable level?
• Designing and implementing a business-wide art risk management methodology
• Detecting, investigating and triaging anomalies
• Adopting best practices and lessons learnt from criminologists
• Reducing risk in art transactions
• Dealing with a conflict of interests and unbiased expert advice
• Dealing with different auction values: Insured value Vs fair market value
• Analyzing the litigation on loss and value issues
• Damage to work of art – how is this assessed?
• Mitigating the risks in provenance and titles in museum management & curatorship

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Speakers

Lawrence M. Shindell

Mr. Shindell heads LMI Group, an investment bank-like firm that underwrites the market release of major orphaned artworks. A lawyer by profession, Mr. Shindell holds licenses in a number of U.S. jurisdictions including admission to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Shindell served as the chief executive officer of U.S.‐New York‐headquartered ARIS Title Insurance...

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Laura Patten

Laura Patten leads Deloitte’s Art & Finance practice in the United States. She is a committed internationalist who advises C-suite clients in cross-border industries, and is an authority on risk management as a creator of value and source of competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Laura works closely with Deloitte’s tax, strategy, research, and technology experts, to provide...

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Ronald Fiamma

Based in New York and with AIG since 2002, Ron Fiamma manages the firm’s global insurance portfolio for client collections of fine art, jewelry, vintage automobiles and wine. Among his responsibilities are the maintenance of underwriting and risk selection standards, reinsurance negotiations, new business development as well as oversight of the portfolio P&L. Prior to joining the Private...

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Mary Pontillo

In her current position as Senior Vice President and National Fine Art Practice Leader at DeWitt Stern/Risk Strategies, Mary handles and produces Fine Art accounts including Fine Art dealers, private collectors, and museums, artist foundations among others, along with the Property & Casualty policies associated with these accounts. In addition Mary consults on client Fine Art exposures...

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Dennis M. Wade

Dennis M. Wade is a founding partner of WCM. For more than 20 years Dennis has handled fine art and specie matters for domestic and international insurers. His cases have taken him across the United States and to many parts of the world. Recently, for example, Dennis successfully defended a major art insurer against a 42 million dollar claim. That defense took Dennis from a New York Trial...

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