Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 2 2024 - The first one of the year

The year has already started with a bang: In France, the 17th century castle of Serquigny burnt down, in Japan the earth shook and there was a near-disaster in air traffic, the Swiss franc is becoming ever stronger against the euro, in Germany large swathes of land are under water, which the government now wants to use to declare a state of emergency in order to distribute the non-existent money charitably in order to accelerate deindustrialisation and elsewhere galleries are preparing for Art in Singapore, the first significant art fair this year. Those who still want to send art there or to Art Basel in Hong Kong by sea freight are feeling the effects of the conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorists in that the risk of war on the route through the Suez Canal is no longer insurable, or only at horrendous rates. It takes much longer around the Cape of Good Hope and is not necessarily recommended for works of art.

It's going to be an interesting year - there's the Olympics somewhere, leap year, the European Championships, the Venice Biennale, elections in Germany, the USA and many other countries, some of which are not exactly democratic. But according to Steingart's Pioneer, around 50% of the world's population is able to cast their vote somewhere. And where it is democratic, it could lead to change. In Italy, Georgia Meloni has almost completely implemented the nationalist component in the management of large museums. - The foreigners are gone, the locals are to take over, only Eike Schmidt, who is moving from the Uffizi in Florence to the Capodimonte in Naples, can stay and will probably become an Italian citizen. At the end of the year, we will know whether Europe was able to defend itself against Russia's hegemonic ambitions in Ukraine or whether we need to look deeper and deeper into the history books of the Romans, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and all other peoples in which history is always the history of the victors and only those who encountered peoples whose will to defend themselves was not characterised by the fact that they prepared for wars in their defence were able to win.

Today, the German farmers are rehearsing the uprising - a profession that has been subsidised throughout Europe since the beginning of the European Community and from whose products we live. From Wednesday, the train drivers will follow suit, with the difference that, with sufficient investment in technology, this profession can be dispensed with altogether. But nobody dares to say that out loud. The Märklin railway is leading the way and you can already see driverless rail vehicles in operation at airports.

It is also the year of Caspar David Friedrich, who is being honoured with at least three exhibitions and whose interpretable landscape and seascapes capture a world that seems to turn more slowly and romantically with far fewer people on board.

Stefan Kobel has the second part of his review of 2023 ready for you immediately afterwards. Start the new year well and with confidence, anything else is detrimental to your health

Yours

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