Thanks for all of your thoughts. She will probably have to go with an art shipper. She has worked with art shippers before in the US, but we have heard about nightmares where the work gets stuck in customs.

arttravel , good questions. She has had pieces in museum and gallery shows in the US where they paid for shipping and gallery shows where the shipping was split (she paid to get the work there; they pay to send what hasn't sold back eventually (though they keep it for quite a while as they try to sell it all) and shows where she paid shipping. As she has gotten better known, the museums and galleries tend to pay but even fancy galleries are not doing so well in the era of the internet..

In this case, it is not a major museum, just one near where she grew up. They have very little budget. Since she is not going to make money from this show, she was looking at cheaper ways to ship.

arollins , that is very helpful. My recollection on the UK show was that if she brought the art work herself, she didn't have to pay duty but was responsible for tax when the work was sold. So she paid tax. The work that didn't sell is still at the gallery. She was thinking of putting one of the UK pieces in the upcoming exhibition but decided that she didn't need it.

She did have some work in shows in Cuba and South Africa but did not attend either show. No idea what happened there with respect to duty but I probably would have heard about it if duty had been paid. She will ask the Canadian museum what they have done, but since this museum is dedicated to the region, they may not ship across borders.

Is there a difference when she is taking the art across the border herself? She is a dual Canadian/US citizen and we have brought art work across the border regularly -- we have a house in Quebec where she paints and she has done residencies in Western Canada and brought work made there back to the US. We have also brought her work to Canada. When she goes through customs and if they ask, she tells them that it is art that she has made. They say "Fine. Have a nice day." I think she has had work in a couple of galleries in Canada over the years but brought the work to them or they have picked it up from our house in Quebec. If she sold pieces, they withheld and she paid taxes in Canada and the US. She has always told the customs folks, if they ask, that she was traveling with work that she made. This has never been a problem.

This would be the first time she has shipped work to Canada with a shipper. A quick internet search suggests that if you are going to bring art work into Canada, you have to pay 5% of the value of the art as a tax going in Canada and then apply to get a refund when it returns to the US. But, I also see the following that says that museums can import work without duty (https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicat...14-15-eng.html), We will need to consult an expert. arollins excellent advice will be my starting point.