Q: What do you see as the best (meaning safest and least expensive) way to ship a framed painting?
Thanks so much!

A: Dear Birdy,
The value, sentimental or commercial, greatly influences my answer. If the value is low, then you can take bubble wrap, crushed up newspaper, etc and send if via the post office. If you are in a hurry, then send it via Express Mail and it will be there in a few days.
If the value is higher, you can hire a professional shipping company who will come out and measure the painting and then build a custom built crate. When we have a museum piece or artwork from a gallery, we will line the frame of the crate with a special foam padding, cut a notch in the middle of the foam, down the length of padding and then slide the picture right into the crate. This way, no paper, bubble wrap or any packing material touches the painting, avoiding any potential damage to the painting.
Properly crating a valuable piece of art is a science and to us movers, an art form as well! (I know what you are thinking…what kind of person sees art in a custom built crate? Well, heck, I get excited about high quality bubble wrap…but that is a completely different story.)
Bottom line, doing it "right" is very expensive, but if the painting is not too valuable, you can do it much, much cheaper.
All the best,
Shmuel