The only thing that remains from Camilla Taylor’s home and art studio in Altadena, California, is the chimney. The wildfire destroyed her house and studio, along with hundreds of artworks—including works on paper and ceramic sculptures. The materials she used to create her art were also destroyed. “Some people tried to support me, calling me and asking to buy certain works so I could make some money, but those people couldn’t buy anything because all the works they wanted were gone,” she told the Observer Report.
Taylor had just returned home from a brief stay at the Sitka Center, an artist colony in Otis, Oregon, and planned to ship a group of sculptures the next day to a gallery in Tokyo that included her in an exhibition opening. February 1st. “When I saw the flames coming up the hill, I stuffed my four cats into cages and left.” Home insurance would help Taylor rebuild, but she didn’t pay for her art (which she valued “if I could sell it” dropped everything, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars”) or her art-making materials (worth thousands of dollars) with special insurance because, as she puts it, “I’m not a successful artist and I can afford to pay for my art. Insured.”
Since she has not returned, she only has a vague impression of what her former house looks like now. The National Guard is patrolling the area, “keeping people out. I don’t want to get shot for looting.”
News out of Los Angeles included many stories of homeowners, including artists and art collectors, forced to flee their homes. Film and video artist Diane Thater and her painter/sculptor husband T. Kelly Mason fled their home and art studio in Altadena,” Carrying only the clothes on his back,” along with their three cats and a computer server with digital equipment on it. It contains files of her artwork and other documents. “I also took our passports and the deed to the house so I could prove we owned it,” she said, leaving little time to prioritize. Everything happened so fast.
“My husband and I walked outside and saw a fire in the distance, then went back inside. An hour later we heard a huge explosion and it turned out that a transformer had exploded somewhere. We went back outside and saw the entire The mountains were on fire, very close to us, so we knew we had to leave. It was so fucking scary.
They currently live with friends in the nearby town of Mount Washington. The computer drive Mason grabbed from the house before it burned down was in his van. “I wouldn’t put them in this house because of reports of new strong winds coming.” Preparing for another evacuation was never far from his mind.
Unlike many other artists affected by the Los Angeles fires, Thater and her husband have home and studio insurance, as well as fire insurance — “I always complained about how expensive fire insurance was, but now I’m glad I have it, ” she told the Observer – but, like Taylor, they had not taken out separate insurance for the artworks themselves, and now they are gone. When Mason ventured back to their house the next day, the fire had not yet been extinguished and what he found was a “smoldering pile of toxic material” as both artists were working with dangerous art materials.
“We can’t afford art insurance,” Mason said. “We had a working situation; we had an affordable mortgage, but we couldn’t add art insurance.
What’s next for artists affected by Los Angeles fires
It may be some time before anyone can reliably calculate the loss of art, art supplies or otherwise from the 2025 Los Angeles fires, which have yet to be extinguished or even contained. “People haven’t gone home to assess the situation,” Mary Pontilla, senior vice president and national head of fine art products at insurance brokerage Risk Strategies, told the Observer. When this happens, affected artists may find that they have their work cut out for them in terms of restoring the value of the lost artwork.
Various insurance companies have what is known as “studio insurance” or “artist mobility insurance”, which provides coverage for the physical location of the studio and the tools, materials, furniture and artwork within it (commissioned or uncommissioned, completed or unfinished) A certain level of protection. In addition, artists can purchase transportation insurance (for example, for art being shipped to a gallery or art fair), general liability insurance (for example, for someone injured while moving art, or a visitor injured in the studio), workers’ compensation ( for employees of the artist) and disability (if the artist is unable to work).
Not every artist needs every type of insurance, but if a fire damages a studio, all artists will suffer a loss, even if they sell virtually no work. If the artist is a hobbyist, a regular home insurance policy may cover damage to a home studio (although the existence of the studio and its contents should be noted on the policy), but artists who make money by selling their work are generally advised that their work should be considered specifically studio insurance. Homeowner insurance policies cover personal belongings, but not businesses operated out of your home. In some cases, they even address it by directly excluding it.
Sometimes an artist may be required to purchase insurance, such as in a contract that a company or public art sponsor might use when commissioning a sculpture. This insurance often applies to general liability, for example, covering workers who are injured while moving or installing the piece or due to Injury due to structural errors or material defects. Most other types of insurance are optional.
Insurers are most willing to insure commissioned work from studios because the price of the work specified in the contract reduces the need to hire an appraiser and determine market value. These companies also often accept claims for incomplete commissioned work and pay a percentage of the insured value of the work completed.
In Los Angeles, the burden of proving that something of value was lost and how much was lost will fall on the affected artists. Uncommissioned valuations and completed and unfinished artwork can become areas of contention between artists and insurance companies. An insurance company may issue a policy based on an artist’s valuation of their work, but then dispute the amount claimed after a loss. The artists most likely to see their claims approved are likely to be those who keep good records of what they sold, who they sold it to, how much they sold for, and all the pieces they have in their home or studio and their value. They put them on top.
