Ever with an eye on wind and tide, our ocean marine staff kept a real sailor’s watch this spring on the Atlantic Ocean.

And on the voyage over its waters of the Chistoforo Columbo.

The 21,191-ton Italian Line ship left Naples for New York on April 5. Securely settled on board was its most distinguished passenger—and one of our most distinguished insureds—the Pietà of Michelangelo. By now the 464-year old marble sculpture should be settled in equal security in the Vatican Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. There it will be on display for the duration of the fair—through November 1965—still insured by The Fund.

This is the first time the famous sculpture has been outside St. Peter’s since the sculptor placed it there in 1500. And it is the first showing of a Michelangelo marble carving in this country.

Plans for the 4,000 mile trip to New York were begun in 1962 shortly after the late Pope John XXIII, at Francis Cardinal Spellman’s request, announced that the Pieta would be loaned to the fair. A special three-man Pieta Transport Committee was set up to handle moving the statue. Two of their major problems: the mechanics of a safe journey—and insurance. Fireman’s Fund, through our ocean marine department in New York, began negotiating the insurance last summer. After developing the necessary underwriting information, the company established both the insuring conditions and the rates, then took the lead in setting up the insurance contract.

The Pietà was to be insured for $6 million. Since no single company could take such a risk, The Fund brought in five other leading marine underwriters as reinsurers. The coverage was written on a limited basis, as opposed to all-risk, but provides the necessary protection against breakage while the sculpture is in transit. Since the piece, which has been valued as high as $100 million, is irreplace-able, the policy covers repair or restoration costs should it be damaged. The coverage is in effect while the sculpture is on its way to and from the fair.

Traveling with the Pietà was a less well known but extremely valuable third-century sculpture, The Good Shepherd, also on loan from the Vatican. This piece was insured by The Fund for $2 million, on the same basis as the Pietà. The total value of $8 million on the Cristoforo Colombo is believed to be the highest transit limit ever written for works of art. (Not all custodians of masterpieces feel the same way about insurance as does the Vatican. When France sent the Mona Lisa to this country to be shown in the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum, the painting was not insured. The reason, according to France’s director of museums, was "because it is priceless." Instead, attention was concentrated on measures to safeguard the painting.)

Perhaps no art object was ever transported with so much care as the Pietà. First, to search out pos-sible flaws in the marble, the sculpture was X-rayed for 17 hours. The 5-foot, 9-inch-high form was then set on a vibration-proof rubber and cotton base and braced inside a large wooden crate. This crate was placed inside a second wooden crate which, in turn, was set inside an asbestos-lined steel case which was sealed, in a well-publicized debate between pro-ponents of the ancient and modern approaches to statue-packing, the modern won out. Spaces around the sculpture and between the cases were filled with polystyrene, a foam plastic substance.

Armored police cars and emergency truck repair units accompanied the van on the 150-mile trip to the dock at Naples. On this side of the Atlantic, equal care was taken for the trip from New York harbor to Flushing Meadows.

In the Vatican Pavilion, the Pietà will be exhib-ited behind bullet-proof glass. Armed guards will be on duty around the clock to protect it. So will special electronic devices, including one that records the slightest change in air movement.

The Fund’s interest in the Pietà continues while the sculpture is at the fair. The company is one of 39 property-casualty companies making up the World’s Fair Fine Arts Syndicate which, as its name implies, will underwrite fine arts articles.

The group will write up to $20 million in any one building at the fair, with individual insurers sharing the risks in portions ranging from 0.25 to ten per cent. Reinsurers in the United States and in London will take on part of the primary insurers’ risk.

Covered are such items as paintings, sculptures, antique furniture and automobiles, exotic jewelry services and for its large underwriting capacity and coin and stamp collections. Chinaware, rare manuscripts and books and other property which would qualify as fine arts are also included.

The problem of providing property insurance at the fair was largely solved by calling in the Factory Insurance Association. This pool-type facility, of which both Fireman’s Fund and The American have long been members, is writing all fire and extended cover on the more than 200 buildings on the fair-grounds and their contents, exclusive of fine arts.

The 73 capital stock fire and casualty companies which make up the FIA participate in the fair cov-erage on the same percentage basis as they partici-pate in the association. Fireman’s Fund and The American together have an 8 per cent interest. Estimates on the total insured value of property at the fair run from $500-600 million. Policies cover fire and such additional perils as windstorms, explosion, smoke and vehicular damage. Special reinsurance arrangements, including assistance from the London market, were needed to digest the liability.

Wherever you go and whatever you see at the fair, you’ll be hard pressed to find anything not insured by The Fund.

[04-01-03-004-0080 Fireman’s Fund Archives]