Dear Agony Aunt,

I entered my art work in a competition recently but when I picked it up, it was damaged in one corner. It looked as though it had been dropped. I pointed this out to the organisers but they said it was my responsibility to insure against damage. Do I have any rights for compensation? Dropped, Leichhardt

---

Dear Dropped,

I’m sorry to hear of your bad experience. It must always be a bit nerve-wracking to hand over your work to a person or organisation you don’t know personally. Generally, the competition would have a duty of care to take reasonable measures to look after your property while it is in their possession. The fact that you made a complaint at the point of collecting the work is a good start. Documentation would be the key here. You would need photo evidence of the damage, taken at the point of collection and witnessed by the competition organisers. This would mean there was no dispute about when the damage occurred. Usually recipients of artworks make a condition report when they take possession of a work to check that there is no damage at the point of handover. In this case your specific options would be governed by the conditions which you must have signed when you entered your work into the competition. Best practice would have the organisers take out an insurance policy to cover damage to art work while it in their possession but it doesn’t sound like this is the case here. You should check what it says in the conditions you signed. If they do have a policy, you can make a request for recompense. If the competition organisers don’t have a policy, you are not in a strong position, particularly if they have advised you to insure your work yourself. You could try to take it to court to get the competition to pay you compensation for the damaged to your property. But as I’m sure you know, this can be an expensive exercise with no guarantee of success. Sorry I can’t be more optimistic.