ZURICH.- Crozier, an Iron Mountain Incorporated business and a global leader in fine art storage and logistics, has announced today that it has acquired Artcare, a subsidiary of Loomis AB specializing in art storage based in Zurich. With this acquisition, Crozier takes on the companys staff, clients and state-of-the-art facility.
The acquisition of Artcare heralds Croziers second location in Switzerland following the recent development of its Geneva facility. Crozier now extends its business across 19 facilities in the United States and Europe with Switzerland as its European hub.
We are thrilled to grow our business in Zurich, Switzerland, a key international art world center and a strategic addition to our global expansion efforts. The acquisition of Artcare marks a milestone for Crozier and our ability to provide best in class, full-service global solutions to our clients. We look forward to working with the highly experienced and professional team at Artcare and integrating them into the Crozier business, said Simon Hornby, President of Crozier.
We are very excited to continue to expand our Fine Art capability in Switzerland. Combining the Artcare team and facilities enhances Iron Mountains core capabilities in high value asset storage and logistics across our nine sites in Switzerland, said John Wegman, Iron Mountains Managing Director for Switzerland.
With immediate effect, Crozier will offer state-of-the-art security and service for managing the secure storage of fine art via climate-controlled vaults, private storage spaces as well as state of the art viewing rooms in Zurich. Many services, such as emergency response, will be offered for the first time in this market. Crozier will also expand its specialized road transport for art across Europe as well as its freight-forwarding services to connect Zurich with its hubs in New York, Los Angeles and London.
The acquisition represents a key change in the Swiss logistics and storage market which is both growing and consolidating. As reported in the Art Basel-UBS Art Market 2018 Report, the fine art market is valued at USD 63.7billion and experienced a 12% overall growth between 2016 and 2017. Between 2009 and 2017, the value of transactions grew by 61.3% and the volume of transactions increased by 25.8%.
For over forty years Crozier has provided comprehensive storage, logistics, crating, handling, and installation services to a diverse roster of clients in the art world. Today Crozier has expanded to become the preeminent full-service art storage and logistics organization in the industry, managing projects in 53 countries and controlling over 1.3 million square feet of storage and a fleet of 80 specialized vehicles across North America.