Zilkens'
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Zilkens' News Blog 26 2026

I’ve never taken so few photographs at Art Basel and its satellite events as I did this time. A mere five pictures made it onto the roll. Is it because I’ve already seen quite a lot in my life? Or is it because pictures costing 35 million USD fail to hold any general appeal? Or is it because the selection offered few surprises and hardly anything from the Biennale I’d visited previously? In any case, the selection at Unlimited was very manageable, though I was most impressed by Nikita Kadan’s very simple yet effective sound installation ‘Tryvoha’ – The Sirens and the Mast. Voloshyn from Kyiv was the gallery behind it, though they only exhibited at LISTE. Overall, Basel felt emptier: fewer Americans, fewer Arabs, fewer Asians – and yet the fair was still very successful for most exhibitors. – Let’s see how things turn out in Paris this autumn. Some are already predicting that the fair will move there entirely.

In any case, the long summer break is now upon us for most galleries – they’re still finalising sales, preparing for the next exhibitions and fairs, and then off they go to relax, also known as a summer retreat, although with the current temperatures in Europe, one can’t really speak of ‘freshness’. Stefan Kobel will resume his half-yearly review from next week – auctions, fairs, galleries; only the order hasn’t been finalised yet.

In 1983, when Nordstern laid the foundations for art insurance in Cologne, he was working as the innovative director of the Cologne Art Association and wasn’t afraid to take on the big names. He was a welcome guest at the launch events for the Nordstern art calendars. Video art was one of the key areas he developed, making it socially acceptable and marketable, and thus carrying out pioneering work. Later, he left his mark in Berlin and also in Bremen. The Cologne art scene of the 1980s would have been significantly poorer without him. Wulf Herzogenrath has now passed away in Berlin on 18 June at the age of 82.

Cyber is the new fire hazard – apologies, our readers have known this for a long time, and yet very few galleries cover this risk through insurers. Our colleagues at Zilkens Fine Art might be able to help with that… Now the Upper Belvedere has suffered a loss because the certificates for unsold NFTs have been stolen. However, the thieves did not manage to steal the link between the certificate and a snippet of the image. All that is needed now is to reissue the certificates. That said, the NFTs, which cost €1,800 when issued, are now priced at just a few hundred euros on the secondary market, as Der Standard has discovered.

Major cities with a significant cultural heritage not only have a duty to preserve and develop it – they also have a duty to protect their residents from the decay and destruction of public spaces. The authorities responsible for this are not ‘the city’, as one often reads in the press – they are appointed and overseen by the city councils elected by the citizens – and are thus part of the citizenry. Unlike in Switzerland, this approach does not seem to sit well with either the administrators or the elected representatives in some major German cities. When it comes to prioritising spending, social welfare always takes precedence over culture, and funds for the fight against drugs are ultimately siphoned off from the culture budget under the pretext of alleged constraints. At the same time, small-time dealers are even being legalised to ensure drug addicts have a sufficient supply of the stuff. How sick is that? The days when heroin was the main problem are over. Now it is crack, and unlike heroin, almost all attempts at withdrawal have failed so far. Crack addicts are, unfortunately – as horrific as it is – virtually certain to face an early death. For this reason alone, criminal law should be tightened for small-time dealers too, as they deliberately and for base motives cut short the lives of people who either did not want to see the danger or failed to recognise it.

The proposals from the Pension Reform Commission are finally on the table – the result: ‘wash my fur, but don’t get me wet!’ Trade unions will see things differently and adopt a similarly outdated stance, just as they do on wage demands or flexible working hours. The burden will continue to be shifted onto those who are currently aged 20–40. In any case, a host of mathematical arguments are now being trotted out once again – and evidently, with mathematics it’s now just like with any statistics: I only believe the figures I’ve calculated myself – and it’s likely to be much the same with the pension experts.

In Switzerland, Rico Meli is leaving Allianz, where he most recently served as head of the transport insurance division. Meli knows both sides of the business well – that of the brokers and that of the insurers – so it will be interesting to see where he turns up next.

Have a good week – provided the meteorologists aren’t wrong –

Stephan Zilkens and the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne (where they’re also heavily hampered by building works)