Insurance is no guarantee that a shipping service will pay a claim

By DAVE LIEBER

watchdog@star-telegram.com

After artist Matthew Wood’s artwork was shown at Lincoln Center in New York, he shipped it back to North Texas through the U.S. Postal Service.

It arrived, destroyed.

Regina Carter shipped three pieces of art from her dying mother’s home in Las Vegas back to Hurst through United Parcel Service.

The box made it, empty.

Both Wood and Carter submitted insurance claims. Both were denied. Both believe they are getting the runaround.

Individually, they asked The Watchdog for help.

In Wood’s case, his signature piece of art, Pink Angels, was shown at The Gallery at Lincoln Center. Constructed out of vintage chrome-plated pigment paper a half-century old, the artwork is valued at $5,500, according to one appraisal.

In February, he shipped it to his parents’ home in Plano. The artwork is still in a Plano post office. Wood showed me photos, taken at the post office. I saw broken glass and ripped paper in a frame.

He insured the piece for $3,000 and submitted a claim.

The post office wrote back, "We need evidence of prior sale of said item."

But since Wood was the artist and owner, there was no prior sale.

So he submitted a letter from Matthew Rankin, the Lincoln Center’s curator of special exhibitions, who valued the artwork at $5,500.

That didn’t impress the post office.

Tom Wood, Matthew’s father, recalls asking a postal employee how the Postal Service can deny the claim when the artwork was insured, sent and destroyed in transit.

She replied, "I could insure a rock for $3,000."

Tom Wood said he found her remark insulting. He explained that the missing art was not a rock but an original piece of art that cannot be duplicated.

"A rock wasn’t insured," he said.

The post office sent another letter: "Based on our investigation, your claim has been approved. However, it has been paid at a lesser amount than you requested."

Instead of $3,000, Matthew Wood received a check for $100. He refused to cash it because he wants to fight.

"To pass it off like, 'Oh, it’s nothing,’ that’s why it’s hard to overcome," his father said. "No one listens to us. They don’t grasp the aesthetics or the value of this."

I asked the post office for a response and received a curt reply.

Spokesman McKinney Boyd said Matthew Wood can appeal the decision to award him $100.

Boyd sent me the address for the appeal letter.

Wood said he was waiting to hear from The Watchdog before mailing the appeal.

Go ahead and mail it — and better send it certified!

Meanwhile, Regina Carter used United Parcel Service in June when she was in Las Vegas mailing back art from her mother’s valuable collection.

She didn’t use an authorized UPS store but rather an independent shipping outlet. That hurt her because UPS says its stores offer customers better boxes and packing expertise.

At the store she used, Carter said, there were no big boxes, so she had to construct one herself. It didn’t hold up.

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