New York is still mourning a great cultural loss. Thousands of works of art—each with its own story to tell—became entangled in Superstorm Sandy's salt-tinged waters. Some paintings and materials housed in galleries and storage facilities were completely submerged, never to resurface. The fate of many more is still largely unknown, as restoration professionals, artists, gallery owners, private collectors, and museums are still enmeshed in the onerous (and ongoing) task of restoration and damage assessment.
Experts currently peg insured art losses stemming from Sandy somewhere between $400 and $600 million, but those figures could change drastically when several sizeable claims are settled. Meanwhile, one question weighs heavily on the minds of conservators, policyholders and insurers: "What will summer bring?" Certain types of art are particularly susceptible to mold, which doesn't always make its presence known immediately. This means that even those works initially believed to have been spared from Sandy's wrath may display vulnerabilities when temperatures heat up.
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