Zilkens'
News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 23 2026

For our newer readers: you are currently reading the 650th edition of our news blog and Kobel’s Art Week. Twelve and a half years of working together to report on the art market seem a good reason to take a brief look back: what was the world like when we started?

The FAZ was still organising an art market symposium in the heart of Berlin, where Kobel and I first met. No one who considered the art market significant could afford to miss it. Today, the newspaper still has an art market page – but it’s becoming increasingly thin. Incidentally, Zilkens Fine Art had been around for two and a half years by then and was far from earning enough to cover its staff’s salaries. Nevertheless, we have been enthusiastic publishers of Kobel’s Art Week ever since.

Since then, there have been six Prime Ministers in the UK (not forgetting Liz Truss, who was in office for just two months), three Chancellors in Germany, three Presidents in the US, two in France and one in China. Their respective approaches to cultural policy ranged from non-existent to geopolitically significant. The following stand out in particular:

Angela Merkel (Germany)

· Cultural Heritage Protection Act 2016
· stricter regulation of the art trade
· start of intensified debates on provenance and exports

Emmanuel Macron (France)

· Ouagadougou speech 2017
· Sarr-Savoy report
· reassessment of colonial restitution
· France becomes the driving force behind European restitution policy

Xi Jinping (China)

· massive state control of culture
· expansion of the Chinese museum landscape
· greater control of the art market
· culture as part of geopolitical soft power

Donald Trump

· politicisation of museums and remembrance policy – also in line with the AfD’s stance
· conflicts over national narratives·

Joe Biden

· Greater international cooperation on the protection of cultural property· Support for Ukrainian cultural heritage programmes after 2022

Three politicians have arguably had the greatest influence on international cultural policy:

1. Xi Jinping → Culture as a geopolitical resource of power.

2. Emmanuel Macron → Restitution and post-colonial cultural policy.

3. Vladimir Putin → indirectly, through the war in Ukraine, the greatest change in European cultural policy in decades.

Amidst all this wrangling, there was also Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic, with far-reaching consequences for the art market as well as for the insurance industry. During this period, AXA acquired XL, AON attempted to take over WTW, and in Germany, attempts to consolidate the brokerage market began in the wake of the pandemic. Like the logistics sector, the German brokerage market is very much characterised by small and medium-sized enterprises and is family-oriented. A shift is on the horizon. However, the SME-oriented players among the consolidators present a friendlier face.

As of today, the author of these lines will be acting solely in an advisory capacity. The news blog and Kobel’s Art Week will continue to be published.

Manifesta is taking place in Essen and the Ruhr region. One of the venues it is using is the Heilig Geist Church in Essen. Vandals have been at work there for some time, damaging the copper trim on the rainwater pipes. Building insurers don’t like this – nor do conservationists, for that matter, as it is doubtful whether the original design will be restored. Anyone wishing to organise an exhibition at Heilig Geist or use the building as a storage or presentation space should contact us. We can act as intermediaries. After all, that’s a broker’s favourite thing...

Wishing everyone a week full of creative energy and lots of enjoyment at Kobel’s 650th Art Week.

Stephan Zilkens, also on behalf of the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker in Solothurn and Cologne