Insurance Certificate

What’s in the document

• Scope-of-cover table: basis of cover, valuation basis, territory, transit, exclusions
• Schedule of insured works with agreed values and a total
• An empty underwriter box labelled for insurer, policy number and period of cover
• Three ruled blanks: total sum insured, deductible per claim and loss payee
• Standard declaration that the certificate confers no rights and does not amend the policy
• Signature lines for the issuing gallery and for broker or underwriter countersignature

What a certificate of insurance is — and is not

A certificate of insurance is a summary. It tells a third party that cover exists, what it broadly responds to, and where to look for the terms. It is not the policy, it does not grant cover, and it cannot change what the policy says. Every genuine certificate in commercial use carries a version of that disclaimer, and this one prints it in the declaration block where it cannot be styled away.

The distinction matters more in art than in most trades, because a gallery issuing a document that looks like it grants cover has created a problem for itself. If a shipper or a borrower relies on that document and the underlying policy turns out not to respond, the argument moves from the insurer to you. A certificate that is honestly labelled protects the issuer as much as it informs the reader.

What the scope-of-cover table states

Five rows print on every certificate. Their wording is fixed, and it is deliberately conditional — each row points at the policy rather than asserting a term of it.

Basis of cover

All-risk of direct physical loss or damage, subject to policy terms. "All-risk" describes a structure — anything not excluded is covered — rather than a promise, which is why the exclusions row matters as much as this one.

Valuation basis

Agreed value per scheduled work, as listed in the schedule below. Agreed value is the art-market convention: the sum is settled with the underwriter in advance rather than argued about after a loss, which is the point of scheduling works individually.

Territory

As stated in the policy schedule. Territory is where cover applies, and it is a frequent gap: a policy written for premises in one country will not necessarily follow a work to a fair in another.

Transit

Included where declared, with an instruction to confirm nail-to-nail cover before shipping. Nail-to-nail means cover from the moment the work leaves its hanging point until it is hung at the destination, including packing and interim storage. The certificate flags it as something to confirm because whether your policy actually provides it is a fact about your policy.

Exclusions

Wear, inherent vice, gradual deterioration, war and nuclear risks. Inherent vice — deterioration arising from the work’s own materials or construction — is the exclusion that surprises people, and it is the reason a fragile contemporary piece may need a conversation with the underwriter before it travels.

The fields only you and your broker can complete

Six values are left for you, in two shapes. Three print as ruled blanks below the schedule — total sum insured, deductible per claim and loss payee. The other three share one empty box in the underwriter block, captioned "Insurer · Policy number · Period of cover", so you write all three into a single area rather than onto separate rules. The platform leaves them empty instead of guessing, because a certificate carrying an invented policy number is worse than no certificate, and because these are the exact fields a claims handler checks first.

Agreed values come from the price on each artwork record, totalled at the foot of the schedule. Treat that total as a proposal to your broker rather than as a settled sum insured — the figure the underwriter accepts is the figure that pays, and the two diverge whenever a retail price includes a margin the underwriter will not insure.

What it does not do

It does not create, arrange, place, bind or extend cover, and issuing one changes nothing about your policy. Gilded Art Works is not an insurer, a broker or an agent of either. It does not verify that a policy exists or that the values in the schedule have been accepted. It does not calculate premium, and it does not handle claims — the claims route is your policy’s, and the certificate exists to point a third party at it. Arrange cover with your broker first; issue this afterwards, to tell everyone else what was arranged.

Questions, answered

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