28 October 2013， The first plan of action of the new management team at Today Art Museum was to reach out to international art insurer AXA ART. Together TAM and AXA ART aimed to promote safety standards for artwork and basic industry regulations.During their cooperation, the two sides have made efforts in the endeavors of how to avoid risks associated with art pieces, repairing damaged artworks, even repayment of completely destroyed artworks. TAM, with help and recommendations from AXA ART, completed GRASP (Global Risk Assessment Project) and achieved a high score of 97. TAM will continue to learn from foreign experience in order to lead China’s private museums in the way performance and practice. 

　　Every year dozens of cases arise, involving safety problems with museum collections, pieces damaged during shipment, or settlement for restoration of damaged artworks. Most of these problems can be traced back to the lack of museum safety regulations. As China’s private museums develop from the second to the third stage of greater resource management and oversight, these issues over safety of artworks have gradually risen to the surface as fundamental dilemmas that must be fixed. Moreover to this day, no other Chinese private museum has been as effective in implementing safety regulations. As a result, the reality for Chinese private museums, their collections, and exhibited work is that once a piece has been broken, it is hard to restore or seek settlement. Artworks are not guaranteed the safety of effective standards and regulations. This reality is in steep contrast with the design of museum buildings/spaces. Accordingly, as the first organization of its kind in China, TAM with the cooperation of AXA ART has created a system of standards and insurance where art is protected before, during, and after production of exhibitions. Objectively speaking, TAM has made enormous headway in the standardization of museum safety measures. 

　　For ten years TAM has been blazing the trails for China’s private museums. The first phase of development has been the construction of museum spaces. In the second phase of amassing collections of artwork, many of China’s private museums have crept into the third phase of improving their oversight, resource management, and standardized practices. Internationally, this phase is where many very famous museums have established their unique qualities, but all share the same characteristics of logically managing resources, standardized practices of shipment, and the guarantee that artworks are protected during shipment and exhibitions. These are the most significant improvements to be made during the third phase. To conclude, regarding the development of China’s private museums, the strategic cooperation of TAM and AXA ART carries tremendous implications for the industry. 

Today Art Museum Executive Director Gao Peng and AXA ART Global CEO Dr. Ulrich Guntram face the media, showing off their signed documents of intended cooperation

Media Q&A at the press conference 1

Media Q&A at the press conference 2

Media Q&A at the press conference 3