UOVO’s facility in Long Island City, Queens, has long operated as a Certified Cargo Screening Facility (CCSF) with a Designated Screening Area (DSA) built to move client property through TSA-mandated inspection without ever leaving UOVO’s care. Now, that program is getting faster, less invasive, and more capable: UOVO has added a TSA swab machine to its Long Island City operation, allowing crates to be screened without being opened.
It’s a small piece of equipment with a big impact on the process of internationally shipping art, antiques, and other high-value cargo — and it expands our capabilities as a full-service partner for collectors, galleries, museums, and foundations shipping in and out of New York.
Why does cargo screening matter?
Every piece of cargo that boards a commercial aircraft in the United States is subject to a 100% screening mandate from the Transportation Security Administration. For fine art and other sensitive property, that requirement has historically meant one thing: opening the crate. Inspectors needed to physically examine contents, which meant unpacking, unwrapping, and repacking — introducing risk to the object itself and, just as importantly, disrupting the stable, controlled climate that a well-built crate is designed to maintain.
For clients moving valuable collections through John F. Kennedy International Airport, that tradeoff has been a persistent friction point. Every time a crate is opened, its interior climate resets. For works sensitive to humidity and temperature swings, that matters.
How do we pre-screen cargo?
UOVO’s new swab-based screening technology allows crates arriving at the Long Island City DSA to satisfy TSA’s inspection requirement without being opened at all. The result is a meaningfully different experience for clients:
The crate’s climate stays stable, because it stays closed. Handling stays safer and less invasive, because there’s no unpacking and repacking cycle. The process moves faster and more cost-effectively, because screening no longer requires disassembling a shipment. Notably — because the entire process happens inside UOVO’s own DSA rather than at the airport — clients keep their property in familiar, expert hands throughout — screened, cleared, and released back onto the truck by UOVO’s own team of specialized art handlers.
Whether a shipment is already packed and ready to travel or needs to be crated and screened as one continuous process, UOVO can now handle both, in house.
How does this new technology serve our clients?
The new capability isn’t limited to property already in UOVO’s care. Because Long Island City is a short distance from JFK, it functions as a natural waypoint for collectors, galleries, and institutions across the region — from New York down through the mid-Atlantic — who need to pre-screen cargo before it reaches the airport, whether or not that cargo has ever been stored with UOVO. Pre-screening cargo before it arrives at the airport gives clients a level of control they don’t have once a shipment enters an airport’s own screening process.
Part of a Broader International Shipping Program
The swab machine is the newest addition to a suite of services UOVO has built out specifically for international shipping: a CCSF-designated facility with its own DSA, a state-of-the-art trucking fleet — including tractor-trailer capacity for larger shipments — customs and import/export coordination, viewing rooms, and a dedicated team of art handling specialists. Together, they let UOVO support a shipment from a client’s door through to the tarmac.
“Every object shipped internationally gets inspected — no exceptions. The only real choice you have is who’s doing it. Standard security screening isn’t focused on protecting your art, so an untrained inspector may use methods far more invasive than ours. That’s the advantage of a partner like UOVO: our team knows the value of your artwork, and how to inspect it with the least risk.”
— Jack Alexander, Director, Operations Compliance, UOVO
What This Means for Clients
For collectors, galleries, foundations, and museums shipping through New York, UOVO’s expanded CCSF program means one more reason to consolidate international logistics under a single roof: crating, storage, climate-controlled trucking, TSA pre-screening, and airport-ready handoff, all coordinated by the same team from start to finish.
It’s a natural extension of how UOVO already moves collections across borders — and one more way UOVO is investing in the infrastructure that makes international shipping simpler for the people who depend on it.
To learn more about UOVO’s TSA cargo screening program or international shipping services, contact us or email international@uovo.com.