Cleaning

Nick Flynn was visiting a museum and tripped on his own shoelace, which caused him to fall onto three, large, 17th century Chinese porcelain vases, shattering them into many pieces. Now, you might think that it was a total loss, but a conservator gathered the 113 pieces of one and glued them back together. She […]

Sometimes owners don’t want their treasures cleaned up or altered in any way – even though they appear to be in need. We’ve written about the loss in value that occurs when tarnished silver or pewter is polished to look like new. And we have published articles that discussed why we use methods that can […]

You might be expecting us to talk about those fabulously expensive Barbie dolls that come with platinum and diamonds like the one that was created in Australia and sold at auction for over $300,000. But we allow the doll experts to handle those. We are more interested in which dolls cannot be cleaned with water […]

Have you ever had a case in which a single item in a home was valued at more than the entire house itself? When a British couple cleaned out an inherited house, they came across an old Chinese vase. They dusted it off and Sotheby’s received a bid of close to $65,000,000 for it. A […]

Often, we have seen those blue and white bowls, cups and teapots at yard sales for a dollar or two, and just as often we have seen them in the cupboards of insureds at fire, smoke and water-damage assignments. We always treat them as if they were remarkably valuable no matter how the owner might […]

Of course, you already know that besides restoring homes, hospitals, malls small businesses, banks, museums, government buildings and many other contents-filled structures, the contents specialists also work for other restoration companies. They dress in generic clothing and blend in with the other company’s employees to lend their expertise to the assignment. But you may not […]

In an article for Property Casualty 360, respected consultant Michael Pinto explained, “There is a constant promotion of products to industry practitioners that spray, mist, fog or foam to remediate mold. However, one of the primary principles of mold control that all of the reference documents and private mold experts agree upon is the need […]

Early on during the pandemic, PPE clothing quickly became scarce (and later with supply chain challenges, the crisis became far more noticeable). Now, several different companies have been manufacturing both simple and advanced protective outfits that are reusable. One company claims their PPE clothing can be laundered up to 100 times. The contents pros are […]

Everyone seemed to enjoy the “fun fact” about real insurance companies that were selling “Anti-UFO” policies (a few issues back). Well, several web sites are now telling about “Anti-Ghost” policies as well! According to one insurance site, a company called, “Ultraviolet,” (in the UK) actually sold hundreds of such policies and another report tells that […]

“$100,000,000,” that was the estimate for the value of the property and contents of a museum (although the curator thought the estimate was low – especially considering that many of the pieces were irreplaceable). A storm had struck the property with such force that the edifice’s 5000 sq. ft. basement now contained 7 feet of […]