Who do you call when you have a damaged life-size bronze sculpture of a 19th century Sioux warrior? Contents-claims specialists, of course! A carrier dispatched specialists to do an on-site inspection of the Sioux warrior statue that was broken during a complicated (and unsuccessful) attempt at moving the artwork. The insured was claiming $100,000 to replace the sculpture.

The team was asked to provide its own analysis of the replacement cost for the statue and to formulate a salvage strategy. The carrier also wanted to know if it would be possible to restore the damaged sculpture.

Case Background

When contents experts arrived on the scene, the art specialist immediately recognized the harmed work to be the creation of a noted living artist. The team also noticed the good condition of the statue and photographed every inch to document a surprising lack of damage to the bronze. What they did find was several segments of the statue's integral stone pedestal had been broken, with no harm to the bronze itself. Respecting the implications of VARA (the Visual Artist's Right Act), our specialists located the artist at his studio to discuss the damage and received his agreement that his work's artistic integrity would not be impacted by recrafting the stone base.

Next, contents specialists tracked down the stonemason who crafted the statue's original pedestal. The team provided the artisan with multiple photographs of the damage and worked with him to develop a proper course of action to restore the statue to its original beauty and value. Due to the unique nature of the stone, the team concluded that replacement stone could not be obtained to match the exact graining and hue of the unbroken segments. The entire base would need to be replaced to ensure a seamless repair that wouldn’t detract from the statue's presentation.

The Result

The contents specialists team confirmed and communicated to the carrier that the insured's claimed value of $100,000 for the sculpture was accurate. However, instead of discussing total loss and a salvage strategy, the specialists recommended restoration of the statue by means of replacement of the damaged pedestal, crafted by the original stonemason for $4,300. This restoration would allow the statue to resume a silent vigil in all of its former glory without any compromise to the artistic integrity and without any resulting diminution of value.

Special Reports /

Contents Claims Solved: The Case of the Damaged Sioux Warrior

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