Just switch it off, it's only two months and paintings have survived worse.
Half right. Paintings have survived worse, but mostly in places that don't swing between wet heat and cold dry air. A Dubai flat does exactly that.
I own a modest collection: a few oils, some watercolours and prints under glass, one framed textile. I travel every summer, so I have made this decision a few times. The first year I switched everything off and came back to a slightly cockled print and a musty smell in one cupboard. Nothing ruined, but I didn't enjoy it.
This year I wanted to check my instincts against something other than a salesperson's pitch. I'm wary of advice that happens to end with "so book our room". I spent an evening on artstoragedubai.com, a desk study pieced together from providers' own pages plus conservation, customs and insurance sources. The pictures are public domain museum images, used to show what a material looks like, not to suggest anything is stored at a named place. I found that oddly reassuring. You pick the medium you own, then read it against the types of room on offer. For my mix of canvas and paper, that was quicker than ringing round.
The thin part: it is about storing and moving art, not about leaving it on your own wall while you're away. I had to translate. It also says openly that it found no conservation source with a rule written for Dubai summers specifically, so some of its advice is its own reading of the physics. I respect the honesty, but it means you should treat that part as reasoning, not a standard.
The point that changed my plan is on the page about how to store paintings in Dubai humidity. The risk here is mostly indoors, where hot wet outside air meets a cold air-conditioned room. That is why "off for weeks, then blast it on arrival" worries me. The cold surfaces are exactly where moisture lands.
* Left the AC on at a middle setting, not the coldest, so the flat never gets properly hot or properly icy.
* Moved the oils and the textile off the outside walls and away from the balcony door.
* Took the framed paper pieces off the kitchen and bathroom side and put them on an interior wall.
* Left nothing leaning against a cold wall or stacked face to face.
* Asked a neighbour to look in every couple of weeks and tell me about drips, smells or a unit that has stopped.
That last one matters more than any setting. A tripped AC for three weeks is worse than a steady one for two months.
If your building's AC is shared or gets cut off, or you'll be away much longer, paying for a proper room might make sense. I'd still want to see which medium it suits before I paid.
So my answer to the original question: don't switch it off, move the art inward, keep the room steady, and get someone to check that the AC is still running.
Just switch it off, it's only two months and paintings have survived worse.
Half right. Paintings have survived worse, but mostly in places that don't swing between wet heat and cold dry air. A Dubai flat does exactly that.
I own a modest collection: a few oils, some watercolours and prints under glass, one framed textile. I travel every summer, so I have made this decision a few times. The first year I switched everything off and came back to a slightly cockled print and a musty smell in one cupboard. Nothing ruined, but I didn't enjoy it.
This year I wanted to check my instincts against something other than a salesperson's pitch. I'm wary of advice that happens to end with "so book our room". I spent an evening on artstoragedubai.com, a desk study pieced together from providers' own pages plus conservation, customs and insurance sources. The pictures are public domain museum images, used to show what a material looks like, not to suggest anything is stored at a named place. I found that oddly reassuring. You pick the medium you own, then read it against the types of room on offer. For my mix of canvas and paper, that was quicker than ringing round.
The thin part: it is about storing and moving art, not about leaving it on your own wall while you're away. I had to translate. It also says openly that it found no conservation source with a rule written for Dubai summers specifically, so some of its advice is its own reading of the physics. I respect the honesty, but it means you should treat that part as reasoning, not a standard.
The point that changed my plan is on the page about how to store paintings in Dubai humidity. The risk here is mostly indoors, where hot wet outside air meets a cold air-conditioned room. That is why "off for weeks, then blast it on arrival" worries me. The cold surfaces are exactly where moisture lands.
For background on why steady conditions beat chasing a perfect number, I skimmed the Getty Conservation Institute paper on hot and humid climates. It is written for institutions, so I took the principle and ignored the engineering.
Here is what I actually did:
* Left the AC on at a middle setting, not the coldest, so the flat never gets properly hot or properly icy.
* Moved the oils and the textile off the outside walls and away from the balcony door.
* Took the framed paper pieces off the kitchen and bathroom side and put them on an interior wall.
* Left nothing leaning against a cold wall or stacked face to face.
* Asked a neighbour to look in every couple of weeks and tell me about drips, smells or a unit that has stopped.
That last one matters more than any setting. A tripped AC for three weeks is worse than a steady one for two months.
If your building's AC is shared or gets cut off, or you'll be away much longer, paying for a proper room might make sense. I'd still want to see which medium it suits before I paid.
So my answer to the original question: don't switch it off, move the art inward, keep the room steady, and get someone to check that the AC is still running.