English Heritage - Art Handling and Storage Services at Marble Hill House - AWARD

OVERVIEW

A programme of building and electrical works to facilitate increased visitor access to Marble Hill House will be taking place from Dec 2019 for a period of 12 months.

As a consequence of these works it will be necessary to move the collection to secure, environmentally controlled storage while the works are taking place and to reinstall them upon completion. Please note that the project has an element of re-display and re-interpretation therefore the collections will not necessarily be re-installed into precisely the same positions as from where they were removed.

The collection at Marble Hill includes paintings, furniture, ceramics, textiles, books and sculpture.

The tenderer is required to provide the materials/crates and fine art handlers for packing, decant, transport, storage and return of all objects listed in Appendix 4.3 unless otherwise stated in the Notes column. Please note that the Great Room contains several extremely large paintings and frames that are built-in elements of the architectural scheme. Separate specialist conservation workers will be on site to assist with these items. They are also marked in the 'notes' column of Appendix 4.3.

It may be necessary to put protection on parts of the routes used before access equipment is set up. Any materials and equipment, including access equipment, which are required must be provided by the contractor.

The packing up and movement of the objects will be supervised by members of English Heritage's Curatorial Department. English Heritage will produce documentation for the move. A copy of this can be provided to the contractor, or the contractor can produce their own documentation.

All collections objects containing organic materials need to be transported for heat Treatment at Thermo Lignum before they are finally packed and transferred to storage. Organic objects are also marked in Appendix 4.3.

Transport and storage must meet Government Indemnity guidelines for environmental control and security.

Some conservation work is required to 17 paintings and a number of gilded objects before they may be packed and moved.