The only thing still standing in Camilla Taylor’s home and art studio in Altadena, California, is the chimney. Wildfires destroyed his house and studio, along with hundreds of works of art—both works on paper and ceramics. The materials he used to create his art were also destroyed. “Some people tried to support me, they called me asking to buy some works so that I can get money, but those people can’t buy anything because all the pieces they wanted are gone,” he told the Observer.
Taylor had just returned home from a brief residency at the Sitka Center, an artists’ colony in Otis, Oregon, with plans to send the sculptures the next day to an art gallery in Tokyo that had joined her for the exhibition’s opening. on February 1. “When I saw the flames coming up the hill, I put my four cats in their carts and left.” Homeowners insurance will help Taylor rebuild, but he didn’t have specific coverage for his artwork—which he valued at “hundreds of thousands of dollars if I were to sell everything”) or his art (worth thousands of dollars)—because, he said. says, “I’m not such a successful artist that I can afford to insure my art.
He still has a vague idea of what his old house is like now that he hasn’t returned. The National Guard patrols the area and “will not let people in. I don’t want to be shot like a criminal.”
The news out of Los Angeles included many stories of homeowners being forced to flee their homes—artists and art collectors among them. Diane Thater, a film and video artist, and her artist/sculptor husband, T. Kelly Mason, fled their home and art studio in Altadena with “only the clothes on our backs,” along with their three cats and a digital computer server. files of his artwork and other documents were contained. “I also took our passports and the deed to our house, so I can prove that it’s yours.” There was no time to prioritize, he said. Everything happened very quickly.
“My husband and I went outside, we saw the fire in the distance and went back inside. An hour later, we heard this big explosion, which was a transformer exploding somewhere. We went back outside and saw the whole mountain on fire, coming very close to us, so we knew we had to get out. It was very scary for me.”
Currently, they live with friends in the nearby town of Mount Washington. The computer calls for Mason to be taken to the house before he sets his van on fire. “I don’t put myself in this house because there are reports that a new wind will come.” Preparing for another move is never far from his mind.
Unlike many other artists affected by the LA fire, Thater and her husband had homeowners insurance and studio insurance, as well as fire insurance—”I always complained about how expensive fire insurance was, but now I’m glad I have it,” she told the Observer—but, like Taylor , they didn’t have separate insurance for the works of art themselves, now it’s all gone. When Mason returned to their house the next day, the fires had not been extinguished, and what he found was a “smelling mass of poison,” as both artists worked with dangerous artefacts.
“We couldn’t get quality art insurance,” Mason said. “We had a working situation; we had a loan that we could afford, but we couldn’t afford to add in quality art insurance.”
What’s next for artists affected by the LA fires
It will likely be some time before anyone can reliably calculate the losses—of art, artifacts or otherwise—caused by the 2025 LA fires, which have not yet been extinguished or contained. “People haven’t gone back to their homes to assess the situation,” Mary Pontilla, senior vice president and national art product leader for insurance company Risk Strategies, told the Observer. When that happens, the artists involved may find that their work is cut out for them when it comes to recovering the value of lost artwork.
Various insurance companies have what they call “studio insurance” or “floating artists” that provide levels of protection for studio buildings and tools, materials, furniture and artwork (licensed or not, finished or unfinished) there. In addition, artists can purchase transit insurance (for works of art sent to a gallery or art exhibition, for example), general liability coverage (for someone injured transporting the work of art, for example, or a guest injured in the studio), workers’ compensation (for the artist’s employees) and disability (if the artist is unable to work). .
Not all artists need every type of insurance, but all artists have something to lose when a fire destroys the studio, even if they never sell the works. Common homeowner’s policies will likely cover damage to a studio in someone’s home if the artist is a hobbyist (although the existence of the studio and its contents must be noted on the policy), but it is generally recommended that artists who do not earn any income from sales. their work should consider special studio insurance. Homeowners policies cover personal belongings but do not cover business that runs out of a person’s home. In some cases, they even talk about taking it outright.
In LA, the burden of proving that something valuable has been lost, and how much that loss is, will fall on the artists involved. Appraisals and finished and unfinished works of art that have not been rented can be a point of contention between artists and insurance companies. Insurance companies may issue a policy based on an artist’s estimate of their work but later dispute the amount claimed after a loss.
For many artists, insurance premiums will cover only a portion of the replacement damage—and some items are by their very nature irreplaceable. Today (Jan. 15), a coalition of major arts organizations and philanthropists led by J. The Paul Getty Trust has announced the creation of the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund to support artists with emergency grants funded by a large beneficiary group of non-profit organizations. such as the Arison Arts Foundation, grant-making organizations such as the Trellis Art Fund, galleries and art organizations such as Hauser & Wirth and Frieze and many artist foundations, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Meanwhile, ARTNews reports that some artists are already raising money for future reconstruction efforts through social media or social media. When it comes to insurance, the artists who are most likely to see their claims approved are likely to be those who have kept good records of what they have sold, to whom and for how much, as well as a list of all the pieces they had in their books. homes or studios and the value they put on them.
