Someone in New Zealand just asked about buying a painting. I checked the USPS website for customs regs specific to New Zealand and it says artwork is prohibited!
https://pe.usps.com/text/imm/mo_023.htm
(See 4th line)
I am shocked. Has anyone shipped artwork to new Zealand? How?
Thanks.
Wow! I went and checked this - somewhat disbelieving to be honest - and there it was in the list of prohibited goods: artwork and sculpture, a few lines down from guns, ammunition and bullets 
I know we all believe that art is powerful, but this is ridiculous.
I went on Google and had a rummage, like you do, and there’s DHL, FedEx and parcelmonkey.com
I asked for an estimate from Parcelmonkey based on a guess at what the painting might weigh - based on my own shipped stuff - and the price was fairly eye-watering - over $48 - which is more than my work often sells for so it all depends on your pricing I guess and the enthusiasm of the buyer.
The only other way I have shipped (to the US from here, the UK) when the cost would be too much via Royal Mail is when the customer was a commercial gallery. He paid the shipping by giving me the details of his own FedEx account which I used at this end.
If you have that sort of customer this might be a solution.
I notice USPS have quite a few countries on their banned list at the moment due to Covid-19 and I vaguely remember reading that NZ has all but closed its borders so it is possible shipping might be hard at present using anyone. Good luck 
Hello. I am in Spain (although it should not make a difference) and I sold a painting last year to someone in New Zealand. I also read the restriction, but I went to the post office anyway because it didn’t make sense. I was told at the post office here that as long as the value is under 250 NZ you can mail artwork. The restriction is for anything over that. I shipped it without any problem. If it is more valuable, then I believe you need to go through a company specifically dealing with art shipping. So I would check with your local post office. Good luck.
So, I’m confused. Is the artwork banned due to it being a “non essential item” during the pandemic or is it policy? I’ve shipped to many countries over the years with USPS. This has never come up.
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The person who inquired about buying a painting said she was willing to wait until the pandemic restrictions had past. Though the information is on the USPS website, the restriction is by NZ customs.
Yes, the postage can be expensive. One thing I do is send the painting unframed. The frame makes the package larger and heavier which greatly adds to the cost.
If the stretched painting is too large to send USPS, I send it unstretched and rolled in a tube.
Laurelle, thanks for letting me know you were able to send a painting valued at less than $250 NZ ($150US).
I am going to write NZ customs to find out more. THANKS!
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I noticed on the Daily paintworks list of possible countries for shipping that New Zealand has never been listed. I have sold to Australia before; sent 5 small panels for $57.
Hi … I live in NZ and this is news to me. We have similar restrictions to Australia. Here is a link to NZ customs site for prohibited goods if it helps …https://www.customs.govt.nz/personal/prohibited-and-restricted-items/
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Thank you, Richard, for your reply! I sent an email to NZ customs and they said there is no restriction on artwork, so it looks like the US website is in error, at least that is how I am going to proceed once the lockdown is over there. BTW, Richard, I read the way NZ reacted to the virus has been very effective. Kudos to you all!
I live in Spain and I have not been able to ship anything to Australia since the pandemic. I was informed this by the Spanish Postal Service.
DPW not having New Zealand on the list of “regions” has nothing to do with whether or not art can be shipped there.
The list of shipping regions in DPW is a Frankenstein mix of regions and countries that has not always evolved gracefully. The original goal was to avoid forcing artists to set shipping costs for hundreds of countries. Since, there have been requests for countries to be added, such as Russia and Australia, however, there is a big challenge when doing so. For example, before we added Russia, anyone living in or shipping in Russia likely had selected Europe for the region. When Russia was added, we tried to let artists and buyers know about it, however, it was likely many didn’t see the notice and make the necessary change. The effective workaround to that issue (no one has complained) has been to simply add a country, when needed, and to automatically set the shipping costs fir the new country in our artists’ shipping profiles to the same as the region it was previously included in.
New Zealand is in the region Oceania, however, it is surprising (not really) how many people, even New Zealanders themselves who don’t know this. Because of this and this conversation, I have decided to add New Zealand to the list of regions/countries.