Zilkens'
News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 40 2025

For those who attended the Cologne Art Insurance Conference last Tuesday, this is no longer news. Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker will be transferred to new ownership on 1 January 2026 and will become part of the ATTIKON Group, a company that is now one of the top 20 in the German insurance brokerage market. Dr. Stephan Zilkens will remain managing director and will continue to be responsible for the news blog. Nothing will change for our customers or for you as readers. A transaction like this is no small matter. That is why we enlisted the help of external consultants to help make the process run smoothly, so that we as a team could continue to take care of our customers' needs. We hope you didn't notice anything. Our thanks go to Dr. Ingo Wagner's team at Wagner und Hines for mediating the transaction and to lawyers Dr. Martin Empt and Dr. Sebastian Kalb from the Loschelder law firm in Cologne, who provided legal support.

The local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia went to a runoff. In cities with a high proportion of students, who were certainly not studying during the election (we don't need this Babylonian confusion of languages in English), the Greens were able to make some gains, bucking the national trend. The less industrial, the greener, if you look at Münster and the surrounding area. In Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen, AfD candidates were in the run-off election, but both failed to win by a significant margin. Nevertheless, they still received more than 25% of the votes – and the only remedy for this is good politics that resonates with voters. However, the voter turnout, which rarely exceeded 45%, is cause for concern. This means that less than half of those eligible to vote determine the fate of the others.

This also poses a threat to democracy. On 9 September 2025, a restorer at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo took the opportunity to steal a gold bracelet more than 3,000 years old and sell it to a dealer for a bargain price.

The dealer then resold the burial object of Pharaoh Amenemope (around 990 BC) for €3,200 to another dealer, who received €3,400 from yet another dealer, only to melt it down with other pieces of gold. The Egyptian police arrived too late, as the process had been completed in less than 14 days. The historical value and the value of the work itself were completely disregarded in the chain. Restorers are usually the good guys and perform true miracles to give future generations a good impression of works of art created in the past. There are black sheep everywhere – risk management is rather rare, and there is still great potential for development in this area in the museum sector worldwide.

Aragon and Catalonia are now Spanish provinces with a more or less pronounced desire for independence. In the 1930s, there was a civil war in Spain in which not only external forces intervened, but also one or two acts were committed within the country that are now being dealt with by the courts: Many people are familiar with the 12th-century frescoes that can now be admired in the Catalan National Museum. But not all of the frescoes are from Catalonia; some come from Sigena, which belongs to Aragon. The courts have now ruled that the frescoes should be returned to Aragon. The abbey from which they originate is still standing, but now displays copies. Well, now the well-meaning sceptics are coming forward and declaring that the originals are no longer transportable... The insurer who has to deal with this is already in an unenviable position, because in addition to the question of which transport company is even competent to carry out the job, there is also the question of the correct valuation. The whole thing may then fall under state liability – increasing the chances that in the end neither Aragon nor Catalonia will benefit from the litigation.

In Switzerland and in individual cantons, the electorate was called upon to decide: cheaper local transport in Zurich: yes; imputed rental value (i.e. you pay tax on income that you only have fictitiously): no; higher parking fees in Zurich: yes; Even faster climate neutrality: no. Some of these decisions had been decided differently by the ruling majorities. However, they are not being questioned – that would be different in our country and would cause a great outcry. Lucky Switzerland, there is nothing missing.

Last Tuesday, I turned 70 – many thanks to the many people who congratulated me on this occasion. And many have already donated to the new project: Support Artists in Exile Cologne e.V. – a studio scholarship for artists who are in exile – and since the world is the way it is, there are many countries they can come from. Prerequisite: training in an artistic profession that is valid for their country: academy, university, apprenticeship, craft training. In a week or two, you will find out here how to apply – but word of mouth advertising can already begin.

Wishing everyone a week full of good ideas and Ukraine the weapons with which they can finally make the aggressor ready to negotiate.

Yours sincerely,

Stephan Zilkens and the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne