The Convelio team wishes you a Happy New Year 2020!

On behalf of the Convelio team, we would like to thank you for your trust and support this year, and we wish you a very happy 2020! Thanks to valuable clients like you, this year, we have organised unique transportation solutions for exceptional pieces, expanded our coverage with the opening of new routes and crating centres and of course deepend our investment in technology. With the start of the new year, we want to take this opportunity to thank you, to review the most important milestones of 2019 and share our vision for the year to come!

To start, key numbers...

In 2019, Convelio has secured 483 new collaborations and achieved a growth rate of 300% compared to 2018. It has also organised 3427 shipments with a large focus on Europe to North America. We travelled more than 14 million km (approximately 350 times around the earth) transporting exceptional objects. 2019 also proved successful with regards to collaborations, securing 15 new logistic partnerships and plenty of wonderful moments with you: galleries, auction houses, designers, foundations or collectors, without whom Convelio’s adventure would not be possible! Of all the shipments completed this year, we had 137 express and 284 white-glove deliveries.

...and names of this year

We are also proud to have remarkable pieces by artists including inter alia: Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Marie Laurencin, Mary Cassatt, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hartung, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Francis Picabia and many others. Moreover, we shipped extraordinary pieces such as a 220 cm diameter rock crystal chandelier and a 40 cubic meter sculpture transported from Paris to Doha. Finally, among the most improbable of objects, we organised specialised vans for a lock of Chopin’s hair, an original manuscript by Voltaire and a famous designer’s new collection for Fashion week. We also equipped the auction house ADER with our unique inventory tool; the dedicated auction house tool, enabling them to obtain instant quotes for their entire catalogue for numerous destinations around the world!

Heart-warming testimonials

Of course, we have numerous such examples; yet, the most important are the heart-warming testimonials from our esteemed clients. Adine, Exhibition Curator (Salon Montrouge, Salle du jeu de paume, Momenta, Espace Niemeyer etc..) with whom we opened Israel as one of our destinations: “Everything was perfect, I am impressed by the professionalism and care of this transport to Israel, knowing that we were your first clients asking you to handle Israel customs”. Chrissy from Jeremiah Brent Design “ Everything was flawless and loved the service. We’ll be using you again.” Finally among some innovative and disruptor art market actors we work with, we started a collaboration with Artistics which attest the struggle of finding relevant shipping solutions for outside EU, for which our service completely solves it.

This year’s milestones

This year, we also had the opportunity to share significant moments with our partners.

February

Last February, we were one of the official partners of The Global Auction House Summit, an event created by Invaluable in order to gather important actors of the auction world and discuss the industry’s future, new trends and its digitalisation. Among the themes raised, we were particularly interested in the technological transformation the industry is currently experiencing: E-catalogues, use of machine-learning to source new pieces, creation of software to visualise artworks in 3D and the increase of digital presence to diversify its visibility.

June

In June, we participated in a unique event - Mid-summer Design Dream - organised by Sotheby’s London for their special “Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art” summer auction. The worldwide auction house invited Anna Zaoui and Isabelle Dubern, the two co-founders of The Invisible Collection, an online design marketplace representing French designers, to present a unique design collection of Paulin Paulin Paulin in the preferred members’ room. As a long time client of ours, The Invisible Collection honoured us with the request to participate as the sole logistics partner for the exhibition opening.

November

In November, we participated in The Art Market Day, which took place at Le Grand Palais--the rendez-vous of the Art World and the industry disruptors organised by Le Quotidien de l’Art. Talks around innovation linked to new technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and E-commerce were the most important topics of this season. Market trends about the industry’s globalisation and new collectors’ behaviours were also raised. Our co-founder, Edouard Gouin, held a talk on the challenges linked to logistics in the art world and the use of new technologies as a means to consolidate the industry and how it fosters digitalisation and globalisation. Taking E-commerce as an example, logistics now needs to adapt in order to offer an optimised customer experience. A more secure and transparent transaction allows all actors to trade in an easy and efficient manner. Political risks - notably Brexit - and environmental risks were also raised. On one hand, Convelio tackles these challenges with a physical presence in France, the United Kingdom and the United States, thus leveraging technology as a means to create economies of scale reducing costs. On the other hand, our team is working on a project to reduce our carbon footprint, which is a top priority for 2020!

What is new on Convelio.com

The digital revolution impacting the art world demonstrates that there is a window of opportunity for innovation in the logistics industry. This year, we developed a multitude of new tools and functionalities in order to better assist our clients. The highlight is our brand new website to obtain instant quotes and book your transport on any device. In just a few clicks, our clients can choose their packing conditions, delivery options and freight types (air, sea, express…). We also launched several new routes covered by our algorithm (Switzerland and Norway) and added new estimated delivery times. Furthermore, Convelio is thrilled to announce the launch of an auction tool helping them to make the transition to digitalisation. Indeed, we helped many auction houses in uploading their catalogues onto our online tool allowing them to obtain instant quotes for any destinations and shareable links for their final buyers in just seconds.

Art & Design fairs

With more than 400 international Art Fairs per year, we are constantly assisting dealers in their exhibitions. Indeed, it is crucial for our current clients (and future) to have a trustworthy partner that can handle their global shipments, from installation to post-sales support. This year, we participated in various art fairs and met our clients on the field: Art Paris (Paris), FIAC (Paris), Frieze (London), PAD (London), la Biennale (Paris), Art Elysées (Paris), Lampada (London), Artissima (Turin), Fine Arts Paris (Paris), British Art Fair (London), 1-54 African Contemporary Art Fair (London), Art Berlin (Berlin), District 13 (Paris)...And we are not stopping here! This year, we look forward to assisting our clients for Art Basel, Brafa, Tefaf and many others!

Expertise

With real expertise and thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture, our customs division processed formalities in a blink of an eye and managed the export of unique pieces everywhere in the world. Many CITES certificates have been obtained in less than 24h for our clients. Art shipment management is always a sensitive topic. Véronique Fontanaud, expert in art logistics (Artrans, Crown, LP Art) and former Operation Deputy Director at Christie’s France), joined us in order to develop our “Fine Art Premium” service.

Convelio Family

In order to reinforce our presence in France and in the United Kingdom (where Brexit does not scare us!), we welcomed 19 new team members to our French Convelio family as well as 4 across the Channel. We have also increased our activity in the US, especially in New York via our representative and very soon we will be opening a new office there. Of course, if you are looking for opportunities do not hesitate to reach out, as we are constantly looking for new talent.

Our 2020 New Year’s resolution

As innovation is at the intersection of what we do, this year, we aim to develop new functionalities and tools to assist our clients in their logistics-with a particular focus on fairs such as FIAC, Frieze, TEFAF, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami and PAD. We are also looking to collaborate with key E-commerce players. In fact, we have developed an API allowing any galleries to develop their online presence by displaying shipping costs directly on their web platform. Furthermore, we are taking several initiatives on corporate social responsibility in order to mitigate our CO2 footprint from our operation. Technology, Logistics & Art- we hope that this year we will further answer your needs, allowing you to develop your activity thanks to technology. So, please do not hesitate to reach out via email or phone or share with us your requests and feedback! We would be happy to develop new functionalities to support you!