Zilkens'
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Zilkens' News Blog 38 2026

Art Week in Berlin is already over, and with it the Positions exhibition at the Tempelhof Airport hangar. The fair attracted 28,000 visitors this time round. Despite the lower visitor numbers, the galleries’ sales figures were stronger than ever. The segment above 30,000 EUR in particular was very active. Zilkens Fine Art supported the event with the Best Booth Award, which Stephanie Oeing presented to Galerie Met from Berlin, and the Academy Award, which was presented to Helen Vogelsang from the UDK Berlin and Rosalie Becher from the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

Underwriters are the people who assess risks on behalf of insurers. In industrial and art insurance, the risks are often highly individual, and agreements are reached on the events to be insured and those to be excluded. In the case of all-risks insurance relating to art, the aim is to insure against events that suddenly and unexpectedly damage or destroy an object. Direct work on the artwork (i.e. creation or restoration) is, for example, excluded from cover. More and more insurers are now offering building, contents and art insurance under the same policy whilst excluding direct work on the artwork. We are now dealing with a case in which work carried out on the building has resulted in damage to its contents. It is actually a straightforward matter: no work was carried out on the contents. Resourceful in-house lawyers, whose approach is far removed from the spirit of the policy, now wish to declare the damage as non-compensable, presumably also because seeking recourse against the craftsman who carried out the work could prove difficult. The behaviour of such individuals, who interpret the terms and conditions differently from what was agreed between the parties at the time the contract was concluded, does little to enhance the reputation of the insurance industry. Compliance is often cited as an argument for the strict separation between operations (underwriting and administration) and claims handling – but it stems from the same crude way of thinking that ultimately accuses civil servants of being corrupt if they accept small gifts worth more than 5 EUR. No wonder Poland is making better progress in its economic development. The country thinks in terms of enabling – not preventing.

Now there has been yet another theft at a museum in France: two Renoirs were stolen in Cagnes-sur-Mer. After the alarm was triggered, the police were on the scene within five minutes! – That was just enough time for the thieves to make off with two works and drop two on the run. The loss is therefore likely to remain below 5 million euros. The works belong to the French state and were on loan. The question now is whether the insurance industry is affected at all? It could well have been a case of state indemnity. Speaking of which – Latvia has recently set out its own state indemnity for exhibitions in 52 articles of legislation. The principle: a EUR 3,000 deductible per exhibition. A kind of all-risk cover that can be used for exhibitions within the country and for works on loan abroad. At least €65,000.00 for incoming and €10,000 for outgoing exhibits as loan values. – Put simply, the state saves the €400.00 premium for such small sums and backs it up with so many clauses that simply reading them is more expensive than insurance cover based on standard claims-handling practice. Incidentally, cover only begins once the exhibits have been handed over to the carrier. Hanging, taking down, packing, etc. are interpreted narrowly and are therefore not covered by the warranty. Damage caused by terrorism is also not covered. The question now is whether, for example, a German museum can accept such a ‘Swiss cheese’ arrangement. The insurance industry’s assumption of the terrorism risk alone would be regarded there as adverse selection. Are we expected to bear the severe, highly volatile risk, whilst not treating the more manageable risk – which can be mitigated through active risk management – as a basis for profit? Latvia is a small country and, with state liability structured in this way, may well be making savings in the wrong place.

In 2026, the Journal des Arts had already listed 11 thefts from museums. And it is by no means only gold and jewellery that are being stolen amid increasing use of force. It is a latent danger, and enhancing security measures for museums does not bring nearly as much acclaim as a successful blockbuster exhibition. Yilmaz Dziwior, director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, is now having to learn this lesson the hard way: following the most successful public exhibition to date, which attracted almost 500,000 visitors to the museum, the administration is now demanding a 20 per cent reduction in staff costs. Presumably, catalogues and registrar’s work are now to be handled by AI. The bureaucratic bureaucrats – of whom Cologne has at least 7,500 too many – would not in their wildest dreams consider making themselves redundant. I wouldn’t even apply the patchy Latvian state guarantee to loans to such local authorities. Cologne is merely a case in point for cultural policy in most German cities. They don’t think about making things possible...

In many places, one reads: ‘The Chancellor is to blame for everything’ – at least that gives him some responsibility – yet people are not always willing to bear the necessary consequences of pension and tax reform (once it has earned its name and adapted its envious façade to economic necessities). Some are calling for a change in the legislature. Even Söder, who has always had ambitions, is keeping a low profile – winning in the current constellation seems highly unlikely. And Söder has changed his mind so often that it hardly matters what he says.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and think positively about the future. Next Sunday, it’ll be Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s turn to provide journalists with all manner of fodder for doomsday scenarios. Let’s ignore that and place our trust in the stability of the constitution.

With this in mind – thinking ahead and staying ahead of the wave – best wishes from

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