A new policy issued by the United States' Transportation Security Administration ordering comprehensive searches of all cargo, including artworks, that is shipped on commercial passenger airplanes has alarmed art dealers, curators, and collectors, who fear risks posed to valuable artwork by security personnel removing it from specialized crates. The new rules, set to go into effect on August 1, overturn previous conventions that artworks and other custom-crated goods like scientific equipment be unpacked only when there is cause for suspicion.

According to the New York Times, 20 percent of all art shipped internationally travels on airplanes and will now demand thorough screenings. Several major art institutions, including MOMA and the J. Paul Getty Museum, have anticipated the new rules by arranging to have federally recognized security checks carried out inside their own buildings, so that the searches can be carried out in a safe, observed environment. The crates are then marked as secure before heading to the tarmac. Art shipping companies have set up similar measures.

Art dealers, however, are expected to be more adversely impacted by the new policy, since the speed at which gallery shows and art transactions take place often require works to be shipped around the world at the last moment, and setting up on-site screening facilities is less feasible in terms of both cost and space availability. Aside from delays, the rules will cause widespread anxiety. “And so you have a Ming vase in special foam, and an airline subcontractor has to take that out and then repack it because he got a false positive on an explosive swab test,” Mary C. Pontillo of the DeWitt Stern Group, a fine-art insurer, told the Times. “It’s a big understatement that that’s something you don’t want to happen.”

Because aviation authorities demand that shippers be clearly marked on paperwork, the new situation will also frustrate sellers who for whatever reason don't want to broadcast that they're shipping off their work.

Read more at the New York Times.