# Securing drawings and watercolors: paper that does not forgive light

> Secure drawings: flat, acid-free, dark. No watercolor in a damp folder. Insure the expensive sheets individually.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/zeichnungen-aquarelle-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

A drawing is a sheet. A watercolor is paint that can travel when damp. Both like to hang framed in the hall, and the hall is often the brightest place in the apartment. In the overview [Security for collectors](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler) this belongs with paper.

## What gets ruined without a thief

Light, an acidic mat, tape, a damp exterior wall behind the frame. You store flat, acid-free, dark. What you want to show, you show in a frame with the right board, not above the radiator. Behind glass, a climate has already built up more than once when the back was chipboard.

## When someone comes

A sheet in the folder is light and looks like paper. Framed in the hall, it is the first thing anyone sees. The expensive sheets do not hang there. They lie in the document cabinet when the format fits and the folder stays dry. The list states size and technique, otherwise someone replaces "a drawing" for you.

## The folder

Artist, year, technique, size, provenance, receipt, photo. An existing stain is photographed with it. The policy gets the line as soon as the price falls outside the blanket sum.

## Häufige Fragen

### Framed or in the folder?

Show it framed, and not in full sun. Store flat and dark. The expensive sheet has a permanent place, and that place is rarely the hall.

### May a watercolor go in the steel cabinet?

Only dry, and not forgotten for years. Damp in the box lets the paint travel.

### What is the provenance?

From whom, when, which lot or which dealer. Without that line the sheet is hard to name after a loss.