Elaine's question about buying a painting made me think of the times I've seen paintings by local artists that I would have liked to buy. The logistics of getting them home made me decide against it. I'm afraid I am not very knowledgeable in this field, but if you see a nice oil painting or watercolor in a frame, how do you get it home without damaging it, assuming that most of the space in your luggage is already spoken for, and that the artist does not have a shipping department?

You use DHL, UPS, or if it's a rubbishy painting a local shipping service. However, if it isn't a work of art, just a pretty picture, have a barbecue on the beach with it.

Have them taken out of the frame and rolled up in a cardboard sleeve. Get them framed when you get back home.

We had a charcoal portrait made and that's how we transported it.

Budman is right and this is way paintings etc are a great travel buy. They are very easy to transport and take up almost no room.
If you find something that is already framed in a way that you love, then why not fed-ex it? It couldn't cost anymore to ship it then to have it matted and framed at home which could be somewhat costly.

We buy a painting on every trip to europe, we have walls full of them now. We always take them on as carryon if they are already framed. This of course limits the size we can buy, but we've never had a problem brining a painting home on the plane. I just slip it in the overhead or under my seat. Of course, wrapping it well is important. I love our paintings, each one brings back memmories of where we have been.

We take home a painting or 2 everytime we travel to Europe. We also buy our frames there, as we like to to match our artwork with the available frames. Plus, I am not a big proponent of rolling a painted canvass and stuffing it into a small bin/container. We usually have them packed as carry-ons complete with handles and sturdy braces and hand them to the cabin crews for storage.