265 years moving and preserving the world's culture.
From 1760 in France to Brazil today: works cross continents and generations under the same care. In transit, every journey is treated as unique. In storage, our museum-grade technical reserves preserve for the future what time tries to alter.
Clé Chenue do Brasil brings together, under a single name, more than two and a half centuries of French tradition and Brazil's most advanced museum expertise. We are the meeting of Chenue, a world reference in fine-art logistics since 1760, and Expomus, a pioneer of Brazilian museology, joined by the ArtQuality and Clé Reserva operations to care for a work from transport to storage.
Chenue, France, 1760
On the night of 15 April 2019, as Notre-Dame Cathedral burned, Chenue teams were helping evacuate the works the flames threatened. Few companies in the world would have been ready for that night. Chenue had been preparing for 259 years.
The story begins in 1760, in the service of Marie Antoinette's court: from the chests of the queen's trousseau to the cases of the court's belongings. That savoir-faire soon found its true calling in works of art, and the company became a global byword for excellence in the care of cultural heritage.
Expomus, Brazil, 1981
If in France the craft was born in a court, in Brazil it was born from a conviction: that the country deserved museums and exhibitions worthy of its heritage. In 1981, that conviction gained a name: Expomus, the first Brazilian company devoted to museological projects.
A pioneer in staging national and international exhibitions, it became a reference in the creation and revitalisation of museums and in the management of collections. Its journey gathers some of the most visited exhibitions in the world and the founding of major cultural institutions, recognised for the originality, quality and transparency it brings to the care of heritage.
Art has... weight, volume, dimension, value!
A single line across three centuries
The union: logistics and conservation under one name
Every work lives between two states: in motion and in storage. Clé Chenue do Brasil is born to care for both, from the meeting of ArtQuality, specialised in fine-art logistics, and Clé Reserva, Brazil’s first private climate-controlled art storage facility. Packing, transport, storage and conservation: the entire journey, under a single name.
French precision, Brazilian museum expertise and an international network with group houses in 11 countries, from the Americas to Asia-Pacific: the rigour heritage demands, with the reach it deserves.
Trusted by those who safeguard a nation's heritage
Works by Pablo Picasso, Tarsila do Amaral, Cândido Portinari and Ai Weiwei have travelled safely in our hands.