Artseco

Interview with ARTSECO: 130 meters of pallet racking

ARTSECO has turned the art market in Germany upside down with an ingenious storage system, skilled craftsmanship and a great love of art. Shelving from TOPREGAL plays a key role in this. You have ordered around 130 linear meters of pallet racking with two or three levels for your more than 4,500 square meters of art storage in Berlin.

How did you hear about TOPREGAL?

Miguel Adaro: We had been using five different shelving systems from different manufacturers. That didn't work in the long run because some companies went out of business and the individual systems were too outdated. While searching the Internet for a new provider, I came across www.topregal.com . It's a good site. The individual shelf types are clearly explained there. It's easy to visualize what you need. And the sample offers make it easier to calculate.

Why did you consciously decide against other Berlin companies?

Miguel Adaro: I was always in favor of supporting local companies. But the Berlin companies were simply too expensive. Above all, they gave us little opportunity to negotiate. We build the shelves ourselves. They didn't want that and said that assembly was included, which also explained the high price. In contrast, TOPREGAL offered us really good prices and the promise of fast delivery. The Berlin companies, on the other hand, had waiting times of around three weeks. That was not acceptable to us.

Marc Handrich: TOPREGAL was very friendly and gave us the impression that it will continue to exist for the next few years and that we can easily reorder the same system if we expand in the future. That is particularly important to us.

You had previously had bad experiences with Ebay. What were they like?

Miguel Adaro: In spring 2016, we got a lot of space at very short notice with our new central warehouse in Berlin-Neukölln. And the need for a lot of storage space was suddenly there. The galleries increased their demand and we had to react quickly. At the time, liquidity was also a key issue for us. So we looked for used heavy-duty shelving on eBay.

Marc Handrich: The first time was a really good deal. But the second time was a complete failure. It's always "bought as seen". As you sometimes see on eBay, we had 70 percent scrap. Heavy scrap metal that we had to dispose of first.

Example of shelves in the warehouse, loaded

Managing Director Miguel Adaro (left) and Warehouse Manager Marc Handrich

Art comes in many formats, shapes and materials. How does this fit in with standardized shelving?

Marc Handrich: For us, practically every shelf is individual. Simply because the art is always different. We have large and small pictures, heavy sculptures and delicate installations. Each shelf has to be individually assembled and equipped. And that's why it's difficult for us to plan this precisely in advance. That's why we prefer to assemble the shelves ourselves, piece by piece, as we need them for the respective works.

Do you use the shelves as they are delivered or do you make individual modifications?

Marc Handrich: We assemble two pallet racks into so-called double racks one behind the other, usually with a width of twice 1.10 m and a space of 30 cm to 50 cm between them. We lay OSB boards over the entire floor. In this construction, we use the lower level as picture shelves for large formats. We lay carpet in the picture shelves to allow the paintings to slide in and out of storage. For wooden crates, we leave the floor made of wood because the crates are then more mobile. And thanks to the crossbar, the weight of the crates of different weights can be better distributed.

How is the use of the shelving billed?

Miguel Adaro: We call our concept "inflatable art storage". Inflatable in the sense that tenants really only pay for the space they actually use. In the past, entire shelf boxes were always rented out, regardless of what was stored in them. Thanks to our sophisticated storage management system, we can store pictures from different galleries together on one shelf. This makes things cheaper for our customers.

You have developed a new offer especially for galleries. What is it all about?

Miguel Adaro: More and more galleries are asking us to set up their own art storage facilities. We want to develop a new business model from this. We work out a complete storage plan and include the shelving and assembly in the calculation. TOPREGAL shelving is an integral part of our new service.

What kind of art do you store?

Miguel Adaro: It's mainly contemporary art, not old masters, because these works require a special room climate with constant temperature and humidity. We have a Warhol and we also have a Richter, but mainly contemporary works by up-and-coming artists such as Alicja Kwade, Tony Crack or Jeppe Hein. These are all modern artists who are currently on the rise and are being hyped at the fairs.

ArtSeCo headquarters in an old malt factory

How do you assess the current situation on the art market?

Miguel Adaro: Art has once again become a sought-after investment object. Where is the return on investment as high as in art? Today there is a new profession of art broker who deals exclusively with the development of artists. And who has access to the fairs when no one else is allowed into the halls. He talks to the galleries before the actual vernissage has even started. And he acts on behalf of top collectors. The art broker has around ten solvent investors on hand and probably already has a wish list from them. This is a development that reminds anyone who has been around for a while of the time before the 2007 crash.

Has ARTSECO been badly affected by this?

Marc Handrich: We are concentrating on the storage and transportation of the works. Our personal interest and passion for art remain unaffected by the hype.

Art Service Company GmbH (ARTSECO) was founded in 2009 after the end of the banking crisis, which also had an impact on the art scene and art transportation. Today, ARTSECO is represented at art fairs worldwide. In 2012, the first art warehouse according to VDS guidelines was opened in Berlin. It was also the largest collective warehouse in association with two other art forwarding companies in Europe. As a service, ARTSECO operates two stores with packaging material for art transportation. Specialist training courses are regularly offered for Berlin galleries. In addition to three locations in Berlin, ARTSECO also has a branch in Neuss.www.artseco.de