Zilkens'
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Zilkens' News Blog 35 2026

Let’s get the most important thing out of the way first! Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH is looking for people who enjoy art and insurance – and, in particular, aren’t afraid of customer-focused work! If this sounds like you, please get in touch with Petter Börgers or our colleagues in the HR department at Attikon.

I’ve been travelling around the Baltic states for a few days now. First in Lithuania and now in Latvia. What strikes me is that every single official institution – be it a museum, a police station, a government building or whatever – is showing solidarity with Ukraine. In most cases, there are two flags on display: either the Lithuanian or the Latvian flag, always combined with the Ukrainian one. In every museum, every admission ticket always bears the message: ‘We stand with Ukraine’. Anyone who looks at the history books will understand why. Russia, and later the USSR, repeatedly invaded, annexed or subjugated the Baltic states. The tsars were just as capable of this as their communist counterparts in Moscow. Latvian artists were branded as spies on flimsy pretexts and executed as early as 1938, before Moscow annexed Latvia in 1940. The other artists survived only because they conformed to Socialist Realism. Frankly speaking, the art that catches the eye is rather rubbish, especially when one considers that the artistic development had previously been closely aligned with Matisse and other French artists. All of this can easily be traced at the Latvian National Museum.

It remains astonishing that national identity has been preserved amongst the population who identify as Latvian, despite massive internal occupation by third countries. Neither the Teutonic Order, nor Sweden, nor Russia succeeded in completely dismantling Latvia. In 1991, when many states of the former Soviet Empire were establishing their own forms of government, this was the moment when the old sense of belonging was revived. And that is set to continue to this day! Not a single person we spoke to here wishes for conditions such as those that existed before 1990. The nonsense that our brothers and sisters in the German East now intend to vote for – if the soothsayers are right – can only be explained by the fact that their backbone, which they so desperately need today to resist foolish seducers of every kind, had already been torn out of them beforehand. The naivety with which large sections of the German public deal with the Russian aggressors today is something you quickly learn to leave behind when you travel to the Baltic states. Poland, too, knows a thing or two about this, for after the Third Partition of Poland at the end of the 18th century, the country ceased to exist! It lives on today within slightly different borders, but with a national pride that is easy to understand. And one of which no Pole is ashamed. On the other hand, they are very keen on a European orientation, without completely losing sight of their own interests. None of this is reprehensible and, ultimately, if one learns to view compromises in a positive light, it is for the good of Europe. It could just happen a little faster.

Meanwhile, the insurance industry is grappling with new risks arising from the recent experience of extreme drought, as well as from drone and cyber attacks, which were unknown in the past. Insurance terms and conditions are being adjusted, excesses increased and premiums recalculated.

I almost concluded with: ‘All quiet on the Western Front’ – were it not for Donald Trump, whose narcissistic and self-serving behaviour constantly presents the world with fresh sources of irritation. For the past year, one rarely wakes up without being confronted with erratic news from this gentleman; or perhaps the old Austrian adage applies here: ‘ned amol ignorieren’?

On that note, I wish you all a good start to what will hopefully be a normal week.

Wishes from Stephan Zilkens, together with the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH, Solothurn and Cologne