Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 1 2025

Dear readers of Kobel's Art Week and our News Blog,

2024 brought us enriching encounters in challenging times. What we thought was certain is now in question. We are tackling the resulting challenges and projects together. Thanks to your continued trust, we can create security together.

With this in mind, we wish you a peaceful time until Sylvester and a happy and healthy new year!

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

PS: By the way, this year we have again donated to the Mendelssohn Gesellschaft in Berlin, which resides in the building on Jägerstrasse where the first professional art insurer from1982 onwards, Nordstern Versicherungen, was founded in 1866 and had its first business premises. Incidentally, a Union Invest company, which forms part of the R+V network, purchased the building last year and, in good old profit-optimising fashion, increased the rents drastically. The Mendelssohn Society, which preserves and researches the memory of family members in Berlin who were descended from Moses Mendelssohn, rents the former stables, which can hardly be used for anything other than exhibitions and lectures. In the medium term, it is no longer possible for an association to afford to rent spaces in this historic building. It would be easy for Union Invest to be satisfied with the existing rent, which is not bad at all. Perhaps a donation receipt would be available for the rent waiver?

PPS: At the end of the year, it is customary to remember those who can no longer actively accompany us with their creativity. Admittedly, the selection is always subjective, but with the help of Chat GPT it should be easy. A clear case of think again! The selection is limited and after three attempts you have to buy the monthly subscription. Only after that the results were even poorer – the bottom line is that this AI is more for the living...

In addition to the museum director and exhibition organiser Kaspar König, the following artists, among others, left us in 2024, but their work will continue to have an impact: Frank Auerbach, Sarah Cunnigham, Walter Dahn, Richard Serra, Daniel Spoerri, Frank Stella, Günther Brus, Karl-Horst Hödicke, Carl André, Ben Vautier and Rebecca Horn.

PPPS: The newspaper ‘die Welt’ gave Elon Musk - the epitome of the James Bond villain - the opportunity to spread his crude views on German politics, combined with a second article that attempts to reveal the fallacies. Nevertheless, the storm of indignation is great. It will be interesting to see how much Musk's X-travagancies influence the behaviour of the voters. In the USA, he openly bought votes. Let's see if he tries that in Germany, too. Even before Trump was inaugurated as president, you can feel the hegemony. Taking over the Panama Canal and Greenland and incapacitating the export nation of Germany by decoupling it from Europe and NATO plays into his hands. If the sovereign is brainless on 23 February 2025, he will choose this alternative – regardless of whether it is called Sarah or Alice. In many regions of the land of poets and thinkers, the necessary conditions for this are obscured by irreconcilable dogmatism and emotions, supported by means of communication that are deprived of all objectivity. But: hope springs eternal.