The US is still recovering from the devastating storm season of 2017. Three hurricanes in quick succession (Harvey, Irma, Maria) left catastrophic damages in their wake, with homes, cars, schools and other public buildings left the worse for wear.
Various cultural institutions also took significant hits in the storms. Cultural institutions have a responsibility to protect their facilities, collections, and operations. The exposures they face are often as unique as their exhibits, and it can sometimes be a tough task to get operations back up and running after a loss event like a flood, a fire, or even a natural catastrophe.
This is where an insurance partnership and strong risk management collaboration really comes into play – two things that global insurer Chubb make a priority. Chubb was on hand after a huge sinkhole opened at The National Corvette Museum in 2014. The sinkhole devoured eight rare sports cars from one of the biggest collections of restored classic cars in the US. The insurer worked with the Museum to curtail the crisis, restore the building to safety, and re-open the exhibits.
“At Chubb, we bring a certain mentality into claims, which is that we’re not looking to minimize the expense or the exposure of the loss event upon the insurance company,” said Byron Smith, Property CAT claims analyst at Chubb. “We also take the mindset of partnering with our insureds. You won’t find a lot of insurance companies who will come into a catastrophic event like this and work with the insured to keep their signature structure.”
The sinkhole opened in the signature Skydome at the National Corvette Museum. This is a famous landmark of the cultural site, and although it only comprised a small proportion of the museum’s overall footprint, it was something the Executive Director, Wendell Strode was keen to restore.
“The Skydome was probably less than 5% of the overall museum structure, but Chubb paid 25% of their insurance limits to restore the flooring at that facility,” Smith told Insurance Business. “The repair was far costlier than the more economical path of demolishment and rebuild.
“That would have been the simpler thing to do and could have perhaps saved $2 million – but the fact remains that the Skydome is a signature site, a unique structure, and it’s what visitors to The National Corvette Museum expect to see. To preserve that cultural entity, we paid more than the average costs to create a solution that would preserve the insured’s needs. That is what Chubb brings as an insurer.”
Chubb has been providing tailored cultural institution property & casualty insurance coverages for more than 50 years in the US. Its Customarq for Cultural Institutions product offers custom-made property and liability insurance, which can include an automatic $500,000 blanket limit, collections insurance, coverage of historic buildings, electronic data and valuable papers; business income interruption protection; broad all-risk peril or general liability coverage, and many more customized options. The insurer can also provide state-of-the-art risk engineering and experts across various fields to help cultural institutions get the coverage they need.
Smith added: “We try to find the most holistic coverages and the best restoration solutions for our insureds. We’re not focusing on dollars and cents to find the cheapest routes, but rather we strive to provide the most tailored and unique services for our partners.”
