Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 20 2023

"Everyone must respect the will of the people" says Erdogan, who leads the presidential election in Turkey with 49.3% so far, but has not won. It will probably only be decided on 28 May in a run-off election.

Bremen has also voted and 6 parties have made it into the parliament of this dwarf state. There are only as many people living in the whole state as in Düsseldorf. But they can afford a parliament with all the trimmings. When looking for ways to save money in the public sector, the question of the necessary number of federal states is one of them - even if it costs manpower. Which brings us to Deutsche Bahn and trade union demands. Of course we have inflation - and not too little, of course a large part of the trains don't really arrive on time. Yesterday, for example, an ICE train from Düsseldorf to Berlin took more than 7 hours! - But it is also clear that when human labour becomes too expensive, it threatens to be replaced by machines. And AI opens up unimagined possibilities. The genie is out of the bottle... . Some people are familiar with golf courses - on the driving range, no one collects the balls by hand any more - it's different in the Philippines, where by cages protected employees do this work. The work, which requires no special training, is still affordable there. And it is precisely for these people that the trade unions are making the spaces tight with their wage policy.

Germany is collecting, but how and what? Yougov surveyed 10,000 people on behalf of Catawiki. Coins and stamps top the list with 17% in Germany and 22% in Italy. One is amazed, and surprised, because it is very rare to read about these collecting areas on the art market pages. Games, books, comics and models together account for 31%. Art accounts for just 5%, vintage cars only 3%, and in the Netherlands and Italy only 2% are interested in them. If you want to know more - FAZ from 11.5.2023 p.25.

Congratulations to Volodymyr Selenskyj and the Ukrainian people for the Charlemagne Prize. CNN, however, only reported on the subsequent visit to Paris. This is how news goes from the American point of view. What is important to us, at least in Germany, plays no role elsewhere.

Bodo Sartorius, former board member of AXA ART Versicherung AG (God rest her soul) and later pioneer of all kinds of Title Insurances has a new job - he is now brand ambassador for Arte Generali.

Museums no longer seem to be safe places for works of art - not only does the latest generation infest them worldwide, expressing their disdain for food by throwing it at the artefacts or sticking to them - cases of vandalism are also increasing during opening hours: Most recently in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo, where a work by Miriam Cahn was affected. It is only a matter of time before this threat is incorporated into the calculation models of insurers' actuaries and increases the hitherto subsidised prices for insurance of public exhibition halls. The antidote may be the development of interest rates and the quest for market share ...

To all a happy week with hopefully good signals from the auctions and a lot of fun with a longer art week by Stefan Kobel here at the end.

wish

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