Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 14 2022

Dear readers of our newsblog and of Kobel's Art Week,

The world community tolerated Adolf Hitler's actions until 1945 and took only limited interest in the atrocities that took place in the German-occupied territories. The awakening came after the end of military operations and the liberation of the concentration camps. With regard to Putin's Russia, it is not even 6 weeks after the beginning of combats that it becomes clear that this regime can no longer be allowed to operate. It is better to freeze at the moment than to pay even one more euro for energy supplies to secure one's comfort. The war crimes of Budsha and Irpin cannot be tolerated, nor can they be adjudicated at the level of the locally deployed Russian forces - Putin and his ilk cannot be allowed to leave their territory unless they are prepared to be arrested and face a fair trial in an international court. You ask, what does this have to do with the art market and even with art insurance? Art needs freedom and insurance sudden and unforeseen events that justify its business model. War has been unpredictable for us in Europe for almost 80 years because we no longer wanted to imagine uniformed people - and mostly young people at that - invading a foreign country to destroy countries and cultures with dances and bombs. They and their commanders will sleep badly and have to ask themselves - how could you? - who gave you the right to cross all the borders of the Geneva Convention? - To rape women? - To shoot children? - To tie up citizens and then shoot them in the back? It will not be enough to exculpate themselves with the emergency of orders! To cite the Putin government's disinformation as a shield against their own failures! The latter also applies to those in our own ranks who justify the atrocities by claiming that we have violated Russia's security interests. With what? With a Bundeswehr that is in a lamentable state? With an army that has had trouble finding personnel since conscription was abolished? Which is caught up in a tendering circus that makes every procurement of material a task of the century that is ultimately not solved?

We should now be prepared to freeze so that the truth comes to light and freedom triumphs. Last week in Leipzig at Eigen & Art I saw an exhibition by Lada Nakonechna, who had just made it from Ukraine with her mother and son. Her works are subtly touching because only a close examination of them reveals what one doesn't want to acknowledge.

Since yesterday, there is Sean Scully at the Langen Foundation and from Thursday, Art Düsseldorf and in Berlin at the Zion Church, the exhibition Point of Resistance IV, with works by William Kentridge, Gerhard Richter and Tony Cragg, among others. All almost normal if Berlin didn't also feature some works by Ukrainian artists who already stood out at the Maidan in 2014. All for freedom.

In this spirit, I wish you a week in which hope never ends

Your Stephan Zilkens and the team of Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH