Shipping paintings from South Africa to US

Ghlinn

My fiance is friends with an artist in South Africa and wanted to commission a few pieces from him. Does anyone have any experience with shipping something like that and could give us some advice on the best and cheapest ways to ship it? Everything I look up seams to be very expensive to ship and I'm sure I must be missing something but I can't seam to find much. Also does anyone know if there would be any issues with customs or anything else that might pop up unexpectedly?

Edit - The art is 5 paintings on canvas roughly 3 ft by 2 ft each.

DarkPrimus

What kind of art are we talking? Paintings? Sculpture? Some kind of interactive exhibit that requires a room at least five hundred square feet large?

Ghlinn

Sorry, 5 paintings on canvas, about 3 ft by 2 ft.

Vesty

You should be fine as far as customs goes-

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/360/~/importing-personal-and-commercial-original-works-of-art,-paintings,-drawings,

Original works of art (i.e. paintings, drawings, pastels, collages and decorative plaques) with or without their frames are duty-free under Chapter 97 in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS).

bowen

Ghlinn wrote: »

Sorry, 5 paintings on canvas, about 3 ft by 2 ft.

I could imagine that costing somewhere in the ballpark of $50-100 to ship.

Can they be rolled up and sent via tubes? That would drastically reduce the shipping amount down to the $50 mark. Otherwise it's a large 3ft x 2ft x 1 ft box is about $10 itself, that would probably fit 5 paintings in it with some packing material. I'd estimate from south africa to the US via post would run about $30-80 depending on their weight.

Wassermelone

If its stretched canvas it can be taken off the frame, rolled up, and shipped in a tube. Obviously taking it off the frame/rolling it might be best done by someone whose done it before.

Then it can be put back on a frame (by an experienced person!) and hung as you like.

Fantasma

Wassermelone wrote: »

If its stretched canvas it can be taken off the frame, rolled up, and shipped in a tube. Obviously taking it off the frame/rolling it might be best done by someone whose done it before.

Then it can be put back on a frame (by an experienced person!) and hung as you like.

I am sorry to differ, but rolling a canvas painting is a very risky move. If these are oil paintings, there is a good chance that they will crack, and there is nothing that can be done to undo this once you get them. You should actually talk to an experience artist about the best way to ship them. You must also consider the drying time, it normally takes 6 months for a painting to completely dry, so it is good idea to protect it against dust during transportation.

chromdom

Yeah, if it can't be rolled up, it sounds like it's going to be pretty costly. SA to US is a fairly expensive routing. I'd probably tell the artist to check with DHL, FedEx, or UPS, depending on what's closest/easiest for them, have them pay for it from that side (sending things on collect basis can add fees), and wire them the money. I tend to think DHL would be the best bet.
If it's really hard to find someone, PM me, and I will give you the name and contact info for our partners in SA, with the warning that we usually only handle business-to-business shipments, and that for something that small, it will not be any cheaper than whoever else you might find.

LewieP's Mummy

I send my paintings all over the world from the UK. I pack each one between 1" thick layers of polystyrene - one inside the stretched frame, one on top of the painting, one underneath it, then wrap the whole thing in layers of bubble wrap, then brown paper. I've never been able to find boxes the right size. It costs lots. I paint in acrylic, so could take the canvas off the frames but haven't done so. So far, I've not had a painting damaged since using the polystyrene. Before that, I used just bubble wrap and had 2 paintings damaged in the post, one tore and the frame broke.