Shipping & Customs
Last updated: 21 September 2026
Every painting is sent from the artist’s studio in Ivano-Frankove, Lvivska oblast, Ukraine. Shipping is free worldwide, with Ukrposhta, the national postal operator of Ukraine. Parcels are tracked and insured. Import duties and taxes, where your country charges them, are paid by you on delivery and are not included in the price.
1. Where we ship, and what it costs
We ship worldwide. Shipping is free — there is no delivery charge at checkout, whatever your country and whatever the size of the painting.
We ship on DAP terms (Delivered at Place). This means we pay for carriage all the way to your address, and you pay any import duty, import VAT, GST, sales tax or customs handling fee that your own country charges. Those charges are collected from you by the delivering postal service or courier, not by us. See Section 6.
2. How your painting is packed
Every painting is packed by Christina personally. These are impasto oil paintings: the paint stands up off the canvas in a real, physical relief, and that surface is what the packing is built around. The painted surface is never pressed against anything. The work is protected against impact and moisture and braced inside a rigid outer carton so the canvas cannot shift in transit.
Paintings are shipped stretched on their canvas, ready to hang. They are not rolled and they do not need to be framed — the round canvas is part of the artwork. A painting leaves the studio only once the paint is fully cured; if a work has been finished very recently, curing time is part of the processing time in Section 3.
3. Processing time
Orders are packed and handed over to Ukrposhta within 1–3 business days of your order. You receive an email with your tracking number as soon as the parcel is in the postal system.
Commissions. Commissioned and custom paintings cannot be ordered through the shop. They are arranged by email at office@kunanets.art or through WhatsApp, and the timeline is agreed with you individually before any payment. The processing and transit times on this page apply to the paintings offered in the shop.
4. Estimated transit time
The figures below are business days after dispatch, and they are estimates based on how Ukrposhta’s international services have actually performed — they are not guaranteed delivery dates. Customs processing in your country is the single biggest reason a parcel takes longer than expected, and it is outside our control.
| Destination | Estimated transit time after dispatch |
|---|---|
| United States and Canada | 7–15 business days |
| United Kingdom | 10–15 business days |
| European Union | 10–15 business days |
| Asia | 7–15 business days |
| Australia | 15–25 business days |
| Rest of the world | 15–20 business days |
Add the processing time from Section 3 to get the total time from order to delivery.
If your order is going to be late
If we see that we will not be able to dispatch your order within the processing time stated above, we will email you without waiting for you to ask. You can then either agree to the new date we give you, or cancel the order and receive a full refund. If we cannot give you a revised date at all, we will say so plainly and you can cancel. In any case we will dispatch your order no later than 30 days after the contract is concluded unless you have agreed to a longer period; if we miss that, you may cancel and be refunded. Nothing on this page limits any stronger right you have under the law of your own country.
5. Tracking
You receive a tracking number by email when your parcel is dispatched. You can follow it at track.ukrposhta.ua, and usually also on the website of the postal operator in your own country once the parcel has arrived there.
International tracking often goes quiet for several days while a parcel is in transit between countries or waiting in customs. That is normal and does not mean anything has gone wrong. If nothing has moved for more than ten business days, write to us and we will look into it.
6. Customs, import duties and taxes
Every parcel carries a customs declaration with the true sale price, the description “Original hand-painted oil painting by the artist”, the country of origin (Ukraine), and the tariff classification HS code 9701.91 — paintings executed entirely by hand. We do not understate the value and we do not declare sold artwork as a gift. Both would be false declarations, and both would void the insurance on your parcel.
Original hand-painted artworks under this classification are currently duty-free in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Customs rules change, sometimes quickly, so please treat that as the position today rather than as a promise about the day your parcel arrives.
Duty-free does not mean tax-free. Most countries charge import VAT, GST or a comparable tax on imported goods even when no customs duty is due, and many postal services and couriers add their own clearance or handling fee. The rate and the fee depend entirely on your country, and in some countries there is a reduced rate for works of art. These charges are yours to pay, they are collected on delivery by the carrier or the customs authority, and they are not included in the price you paid us. We cannot calculate them for you and we cannot pay them on your behalf.
Please check the import rules of your own country before you order. Your national customs or tax authority is the only reliable source: for the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection; for the United Kingdom, HM Revenue & Customs; in the European Union, the customs administration of your member state.
If a parcel is held in customs and they ask you for information or a payment, deal with it promptly. Parcels that are not cleared are eventually returned to us, and Section 9 then applies.
7. If your parcel is damaged
Please open the parcel carefully and check the painting as soon as it arrives. Filming or photographing the unpacking is the single most useful thing you can do, because it makes any claim against the carrier straightforward.
If there is damage, email office@kunanets.art as soon as you reasonably can — ideally within a few days of delivery — with your order number and clear photographs of the outer carton, the inner packing and the damaged area, and keep all the packaging until the claim is settled. The carrier will normally not accept a claim without it.
We will agree the remedy with you: repair by the artist, a replacement work where one is available, a price reduction, or a full refund. Transport damage is never your cost. Reporting later than suggested above does not take away your statutory rights; it only makes the claim against the carrier harder, which is why we ask early.
8. If your parcel is lost
Parcels are tracked and insured. If tracking has not moved for more than ten business days, or if the expected transit time in Section 4 has clearly passed, write to us with your order number. We open an enquiry with Ukrposhta; it is a formal process and it takes time, often several weeks, because the postal operators in both countries have to answer.
Once the carrier formally confirms that the parcel is lost, you receive a full refund of what you paid, or a replacement painting if a comparable work is available and you prefer that. We do not wait for the insurance payout before refunding you.
9. Wrong address, refused and uncollected parcels
Please check your delivery address before you confirm your order, and tell us straight away — before dispatch — if anything is wrong. Once the parcel is in the post we cannot change the address.
If a parcel cannot be delivered because the address was incorrect or incomplete, because delivery was refused, or because it was not collected from the post office within the holding period, it is returned to Ukraine. In that case:
- the cost of returning the parcel and any customs or storage charges that arose are yours, and they are deducted from any refund;
- if you would like the painting sent again, the cost of the second shipment is yours and we will tell you the amount before we ship;
- we refund the purchase price once the painting is back with us and we have checked its condition.
This does not apply where you are exercising your right to cancel — see the Refund and Returns Policy, which explains the 14-day right of withdrawal, how to return a painting, and who pays for what.
10. Circumstances beyond our control
We ship from Ukraine, during a war. Ukrainian airspace is closed, so international mail leaves the country overland to hubs in neighbouring European countries before it flies. That detour is already built into the transit times in Section 4, and the postal service has been working reliably throughout.
We will not pretend that we can rule out disruption. Air raid alerts, power cuts, border congestion, industrial action, strikes or natural events at any point along the route, and changes in customs practice can all delay a parcel, and none of them are within our control. What we commit to is this: if your parcel is affected, you will hear it from us rather than have to chase us, we will tell you what we actually know, and if the delay becomes unreasonable you can cancel and get your money back. The same applies to any delay on our side that we cannot avoid.
11. Returns
Returns, the 14-day right of withdrawal, the return address and who pays for return shipping are covered in the Refund and Returns Policy. One point belongs here: a painting sent back to Ukraine must be declared on the customs paperwork as “Returned goods — returned to sender” with the original order number, otherwise it can be treated as a new import and charged accordingly.
12. Questions about a shipment
Write to office@kunanets.art with your order number, or use the WhatsApp button on this page. Messages are answered Monday to Friday. Our other pages may answer your question faster: FaQ, Refund and Returns Policy, Terms and Conditions & Legal Notice, Contact.