Zilkens'
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Zilkens' News Blog 8 2025

After last week and the Munich Security Conference, the art trade is also feeling insecure – at least those who do business with customers in the United States. It is possible that the days of tax-free imports via Delaware are over if the tariff war extends to goods other than steel and aluminium. Preparations are underway, and with a possible 25% import sales tax, no American will buy art from European sources anymore. No problem for speculators – they don't necessarily want the works at home. Free ports are sufficient – and if after four years the Trump administration no longer exists (if!), then perhaps imports can be reintroduced at the old rates. In the meantime, European warehouse keepers are pleased to be able to offer bonded warehousing.

The good old duel, wisely banned in the 19th century, is celebrating a happy resurrection in the form of the quarrel. Germany's most popular son-in-law, Günther Jauch, was one of the aides. There were no deaths, no new insights, and next week we will then know whether new elections are necessary after a few weeks of tough negotiations because high-level politics is dissatisfied with the vote of the sovereign, to the delight of two old men in Washington and Moscow.

We live in a time of paradigm shifts, and disruption is considered a virtue by some. However, disruptive security policy is not one of them, and it seems that this is precisely what the American administration is striving for in order to push through its own economic interests. Anyone who negotiates with Putin without actively bringing Ukraine to the negotiating table and perhaps giving Europe a role at the side table is showing that the sledgehammer is their tool of choice. However, the latter does not lead to long-term solutions.

Gerhart Baum, the great liberal and freedom thinker in the FDP, died on Saturday night at the age of 92. Our condolences go out to his family. He was also very interested in culture and art. In November 2022, he was one of our guests at the opening of the exhibition ‘Worth Fighting For’, which juxtaposed current developments in Ukrainian art with works by artists established in the West. He stayed late.

Next Sunday we will know whether there will still be a liberal force in the German parliament in the next 4 years. Those whose hearts beat for personal responsibility and freedom should not be deterred by the polls.

At Cologne Airport there are signs that bear witness to a particular brand of intelligence. At the top of a flight of stairs there is a sign for an emergency escape route combined with a sign prohibiting pedestrians from using the passage. I was taken with the combination. There also seem to be escape routes without any emergency – presumably for defaulting payers or criminals who want to avoid arrest. So this escape route is not for them. You are only allowed to use it in an emergency. However, you are not allowed to use it with humans either, and would the numerous cars in the car park then take the stairs?

There are many things in the European administration that go unnoticed by the public. EIOPA is one such regulatory authority, where people far removed from practice calculate the basics of the insurance industry in order to then intervene in competition with formulas and directives. All under the guise of consumer protection. Solvency 2 is intended to ensure that the risks insured are adequately covered by equity. The increasing number of natural disasters is leading to higher losses, partly because of the inflationary spiral in energy prices and wage costs. If the formula is changed now, the companies' capital requirements will increase. We are talking about 80 billion euros just for home and building insurance. As a consequence, some competitors would drop out, others would raise prices, the capital requirements for new entrants would be so immense that they would refrain from doing so, and a monopolisation of the market would be encouraged. One gets the impression anyway that the goal of the excessive regulation from Brussels and the regional capitals is to break up the SME sector through bureaucracy. A kind of democratically legitimised Musk for Europe could help here – but the legitimisation will not come because the political self-provision system would then have to find other ways to provide for deserving party stalwarts. A return to the normal world of work does not seem possible – that's what civil society is for. A term that I still don't understand today – in democracies, everyone is a cives – Latin for citizen.

If you want to travel far, fly to Manila, where the Art Fair Philippines is taking place in Makati. Or you can go closer and travel to Karlsruhe from Wednesday, where the Art Fair is welcoming exhibitors and visitors in a new guise in halls with daylight.

Stephan Zilkens and the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne wish everyone a nerve-racking week.