Insuring Art Is Getting More Expensive Because of Climate Change

A worrying trend for art collectors

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Add art insurance to the list of things climate change has messed with.
Angèle Kamp/Unsplash

As befits a global phenomenon, there are few aspects of human life that climate change isn’t going to affect in some way. This can occur in ways large and small, and incorporates everything from geopolitics to infrastructure. And as it turns out, climate change is also leaving a mark on the way insurers handle art.

Writing at The Art Newspaper, Daniel Grant explored the ways in which art collectors are experiencing challenges in getting new policies on their collections. At issue here is the way that climate change is affecting certain regions of the country. In other words, if you’re a prominent art collector who keeps their collection in a part of California that’s increasingly prone to wildfires, you’re probably going to pay more for insurance.

Given the rate increases in flood insurance as of late, it’s worth pointing out that this is far from the only case where a particular type of insurance is getting more expensive due to climate change.

In the article, Grant cites a statistic showing “the premiums for fine art insurance coverage increasing between 5% and 12%” in California. That’s if they can get insurance at all. Some collectors living in California have seen massive rate hikes or have been unable to get coverage for their collections.

The same may soon be true for Florida, another state with both a lot of art collectors and a sensitivity to the effects of climate change. And it’s worth considering what effect this might have on the art world as climate change’s impact on the world deepens.

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