Founded in 2000, Arterìa is the leading Italian logistics provider for the transportation, packing, handling, and installation of fine arts.
They work across Italy, with operational branches and warehouses in Milan, Rome, Florence, Venice, Turin, and Malpensa.
As of recently, Arterìa is now a channel partner of Hanhaa’s IoT cargo tracking solution, ParceLive. This case study shall focus on the transportation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man drawing from Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice to the Louvre Museum, Paris.
Vitruvian Man
The transportation of precious works of art comes with its many challenges, especially for those that are hundreds of years old, with the Vitruvian Man created around the year of 1487AD.
Due to the historical value and the fragility of the drawing there were many conflicting opinions concerning the transportation of the artwork to Paris. In the end, however, the decision to grant this loan to an important institution such as the Louvre for an exhibition of high artistic and scientific value prevailed.
The loan was granted by the Italian Ministry for Artistic Heritage on condition that there would be maximum protection and safeguarded measures with regards to the packaging and transportation of the artwork. It was also imperative that there had to be real-time monitoring of the various conservative parameters and geolocation throughout the transfer.
When transporting a masterpiece, it is necessary to carry out an accurate risk assessment to always ensure maximum safety and protection of the art work. Various aspects must be taken into consideration including the fragility and sensitivity of the object to vibrations and shock, microclimatic conditions, the distance, the means of transport, the level of security in order to prevent thefts, geolocation capabilities, the routing to be carried out and the type of packaging.
For this reason, the use of ParceLive’s smart sensor technology provides lending and borrowing institutions and fine art logistics organizations, such as Arterìa, with the technology to monitor in real-time that the artwork is transported in optimum and safe conditions.
As a result of the problems listed above, protective packaging and a transport system that minimized the risks was studied, designed and built by Arterìa together with the Direction of the Gallerie dell’Accademia. With the highly valuable and delicate nature of the artwork in transit, ParceLive’s smart sensor technology provides fine art logistics organizations such as Arterìa with the technology to ensure all cargo is transported correctly.
With the ParceLive profiling feature, Arterìa are able to configure the sets of data they want to be alerted on and determine the frequency at which this data is reported back to them.
As can be seen from the profile above, the humidity, light, shock, temperature and drop sensors have been activated with particular ranges of measurement configured so that Arterìa is alerted to any deviations outside of the defined parameters. If the ParceLive sensors are not trigged by an alert outside of the defined measurement range, Arterìa will still be updated on their cargo’s location and condition every 5 minutes for maximum visibility.
Whilst the majority of the sensors activated will inform Arteria of the art works condition, light sensors will also enable them to see if the packing crate carrying the artwork has been opened before its intended end destination. To go one step further, ParceLive will also inform users on how long the tracker has been stationary for, which will give further visibility into any suspicious activity along the journey.
The image below shows the journey of the Vitruvian Man from Venice to Paris..
Making it’s way from the Gallerie dell’Accademia, the art work was then transported via aircraft.
ParceLive has a flight mode that enables the device to detect both acceleration and pressure to signal that the tracker is now airborne. During the course of the flight, ParceLive will still record all data from the entirety of the journey. When the plane comes to land, all data from the flight will be made readily available via the ParceLive portal. With over 25+ major airline approvals, the team at Arterìa encountered no trouble or setbacks when planning the transfer.
Landing at Charles De Gaulle airport, the artwork then made its way to the Louvre.
With ParceLive, it is now possible for Arterìa to have around-the-clock visibility into the status of their valuable cargo. They can place trackers inside crates to monitor the status of the artwork and help handlers better manage security.
With cargo so precious in nature, no risks should be taken especially when the technology is available to ensure full security and visibility with such ease of implementation. With ParceLive, the barriers of IoT adoption are greatly diminished allowing companies the world over to experience truth at scale.
