Shipping instructions

The journey of one of the master works of Italian Renaissance art to Reno in January requires a finely detailed effort in logistics.

Just the instructions for construction of the crate that will transport Raphael's "The Woman with the Veil", for instance, are precisely spelled out in approximately 200 words.

The crate will be lined with at least 2 inches of foam. Exterior handles will installed. The crate will be painted to create a vapor barrier. The painting will be wrapped in glassine or Dartek. And on and on.

The reason for all the caution: The painting, which dates from approximately 1516, is considered one of the finest portraits completed by Raphael.

It seldom travels from its home in the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy, but it will visit the Nevada Museum of Art from Jan. 9 through March 21. The Reno exhibition is sponsored by Arte Italia, which was launched by the E.L. Wiegand Foundation to promote exploration of Italian culture.

Ann M. Wolfe, curator of exhibitions and collections at the Nevada Museum of Art, says innumerable details needed to be hammered out during a year of negotiations to bring the artwork to Reno.

The city's arid climate, for instance, easily could pose a threat to the oil-on-canvas painting.

"The Woman with the Veil" will travel in a climate-controlled environment. It will be left undisturbed for as long as 48 hours after its arrival to allow the artwork to stabilize in its new environment. The E.L. Wiegand Gallery at the museum in which the painting will be shown will be monitored closely to ensure humidity ranges from 50 to 60 percent at all times.

The contract for showing of the painting also specifies the maximum lighting that's allowed in the gallery to prevent damage.

Transportation of the painting, which is 24 inches wide by 32 inches high, also is carefully detailed in the agreement between the Nevada Museum of Art and the painting's Italian owners.

Wolfe won't talk in detail about security arrangements, but she notes the painting will always be accompanied by at least three workers while it travels by air from Italy and by air and ground in the United States.

Along with Reno, the painting is scheduled for exhibition in Portland and Milwaukee.

Before it travels, the painting will be packaged and crated by trained handlers of fine art who follow the instructions laid out by Italian curators.

Another key element that needed to be negotiated, Wolfe says, was insurance and indemnification.

The National Endowment for the Arts operates an indemnity program that minimizes the cost of insuring international art exhibits in the United States, and the program provided critical assistance to the Nevada Museum of Art.

The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, oversees a statute that protects from seizure significant artworks brought into the United States for temporary exhibitions. Again, the Reno museum needed to clear that paperwork to allow the Raphael exhibit to move forward.

As painstaking as the negotiations for "The Woman with the Veil" proved to be, Wolfe notes the museum has experience with exhibitions of priceless artworks.

At the same time that visitors see the Raphael painting, for instance, the museum also will be continuing its show of a collection of works on paper by Rembrandt.