As a professional conservator I never advise packing any museum, art,
or historical objects in solely bubble wrap. The plastic in some
bubble wrap may contain organic acids and leave burned impressions of
the bubble pattern on surfaces. The main concern is with condesation
reactions when the air inside the plastic is warmer or cooler than the
outside air and you get liquid water forming against the plastic and
the object.

I would recommend wrapping the object in soft archival tyvek first,
and then if you want to temporarily use bubble wrap for a move, and
then will be removing the plastic bubble wrap later, then that's fine.
Archival soft tyvek is wonderful stuff, as it is non-abrasive, it
allows air exchange but does not allow liquid water to pass through.

Oh, and by the way, never-ever wrap waterlogged objects or art work in
Tyvek. I saw a water damaged collection stored this way and it was
allowed to sit for weeks and weeks in warm temperatures. It was a
perfect setting for mold and mildew and when we dug into it to survey
the art work we have to peel the tyvek (wet and very moldy on the
inside) off the surfaces that were all still wet and very moldy. It
was an absolute nightmare!!

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California

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