GAC's delivery of Chinese art to London overcomes Olympic challenges

GAC Logistics says it managed to successfully deliver US$1.5 million worth of art from China to an exhibition at London's Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, in spite of a series of road closures and other traffic restrictions due to the London Olympics.

A company release said that in addition to all the usual procedures and precautions needed to get the paintings in place, the logistics firm also had to contend with street closures and restrictions as a result of the Olympic road cycling races. It was the same scenario when they returned to collect the art at the close of the exhibition, which clashed with the men's triathlon event.

A team of specialists led by events and sports logistics manager Rob Cotton managed the temperature-controlled transportation of the exhibits from London Heathrow Airport to the city centre for the inaugural "Discover Jiangsu 2012 Culture Week," which showcased the tradition and culture of the eastern Chinese province.

"Handling such valuable art is always a challenge requiring careful planning and meticulous attention to detail," said Mr Cotton. "With the support of our GAC colleagues at the point of origin in Shanghai and our own 'Team GB' we were able to overcome a whole raft of challenges. This historic venue has very narrow corridors and even spiral staircases, which meant that like our champion athletes, we had to rely on muscle and sweat rather than the usual lifting equipment to carry the large format art into place, taking care to avoiding any damage to the paintings or the venue."

He continued: "To further complicate things, Olympic event traffic restrictions meant that the roads around the Central Hall became no-go zones, so our vehicles had to wait for races to finish and roads to be reopened to reach the destination. We also had to negotiate with Westminster Council to suspend the local resident MPs' and judges' parking bays and provide alternative parking to allow us to deliver and collect the goods."