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Zilkens' News Blog 11 2025

It's clever to organise an art fair at the seat of government, then a king will come by. Madrid, Arco and the king - bad luck for Maastricht, it's just not The Hague - but the taxes on art are lower in Holland. This shows once again that in a constitutional monarchy, kings have no influence on the lack of cultural interest of the governments elected by their people.

Germany may have a capital city that is home to many galleries, but it still can't manage an internationally outstanding art fair à la Art Basel. But at least there is Positions – in paper and in the hangars of Tempelhof. The politicians who prowl around it are only marginally interested in it – and at the moment not at all, it seems. They are too busy with soup and the salt in it. First-time readers of the blog should know: it always refers to all genders, and just because it was International Women's Day last week, there are still no exceptions.

Putin and his new friend in the white (perhaps now rather dirty) house are keeping Europe on its toes. The necessary investment in defence is inevitable. How wonderful it was at the beginning of the 80s of the last century to demonstrate in Bonn's Hofgarten with 300,000 like-minded people (of course of all sexes, even though these contortions were not necessary at the time, as the women who travelled with us were self-confident enough) for peace-making without weapons. From today's perspective, it was criminally naive. The world is full of many varieties of envy, ideologically veiled in a thousand guises. You want the raw materials and claim that the government of another country oppresses its people and that is why you have to come to the aid of your ethnic group. You want the fertile fields and claim that the landowners' religion promotes vampirism. They want to protect their own dictatorship from freedom at the country's borders because they are jealous of having to be a dictator who can only stay on top by using tricks. Unfortunately, envy is a major driving force, but it also gives the insurance industry part of its right to exist. Property offences and envy are related because the guard rails for honest work have become porous in some environments.

This also applies, incidentally, to the German trade union VERDI, which has just managed to push through wage increases at the Post (German postal service), with the consequence that 8,000 people will no longer have a job in the future because labour is too expensive in Germany. Yesterday, much to the dismay of employees in Hamburg, they instigated in the public sector an unannounced strike at Fuhlsbüttel airport, which made it impossible for thousands of workers and their families to take a break from work. Today they are paralysing Germany – the only thanks they get are from the air, which has fewer emissions to process. If they manage to push through even a fraction of their demands, the taxpaying population will have only one demand: to streamline structures, reduce public services and cut staff. How about fewer federal states? Why still have government districts in federal states? What are all the nice intermediate levels, which essentially support party soldiers (and of course female soldiers too), for? Why do we need lower, middle and upper authorities? In industry, this is common practice: when the middle management gets too fat, it puts on bacon and that belongs in the pan. (figuratively speaking, of course). The appreciation blubber to justify wage demands should actually move in the gully in view of the overall not rosy situation. In the cultural sector, you often have to feed only on applause – it's like in football, only a very small minority earns gigantic, the rest struggles and still achieves good results.

ZADIK (the Central Archive for German and International Art Market Research) is hosting a symposium today and tomorrow on the topic of ‘Art and Cultural Goods in Circulation – Research Perspectives on the Auction Market’. Documents from auction houses are often only available for research after decades – usually the auction house in question has to close and bequeath its archive to ZADIK. Let's hope that the symposium is not disrupted by a wildcat strike by an envious trade union and that all participants can make their contributions there.

In Austria, a new government has been formed, in Germany the scuffle is only just beginning after the Bundestag exempted the necessary defence spending from the debt brake. The remaining funds for infrastructure are to be put into perspective – over the course of 10 years, 50 billion will melt down to 40, adjusted for purchasing power and inflation. This means that less will be achieved – and, oh yes, tax revenues will increase.

Have a stimulating week and come and see the TEFAF in Maastricht...

The team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Brokers GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne