Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 20 2026

Bruno Bischofberger, one of the pioneers of Art Basel, passed away on Saturday at the age of 86. He was one of the greats. A friend to many artists, including Schnabel and Warhol, and a pioneer of Basquiat. A passionate and dedicated collector of Swiss art from the last century. Controversial, committed and with a keen eye. In the Alpine region, no reasonably well-preserved and painted farmhouse cupboard was safe from him. He drove his car with pride, bearing the number plate AI 2 – an Appenzeller who was not ashamed of his origins and who, for all his cosmopolitanism, never lost touch with his roots. Our condolences go to his family and all those close to him. We mourn with them.

He hadn’t attended the biennales for their openings in recent years. In Venice, he would probably have been rather bored this time – little new under the sun! Lots of video art that makes you wonder whether it wouldn’t be better suited to the Film Biennale or the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. Entire feature films of singing and stammering crowds mirrored on a second screen with close-ups of details. ‘What on earth do I need that for?’ Qualtinger would have asked! If I don’t have to take the screen with me, these are very easy to store works of art that will last forever, provided the storage media don’t change. The main exhibition “In minor keys” – that is, “Everything in minor keys” – was also rather staid, boring and certainly not suited to generating the kind of buzz that propels new developments in art forward. A surprisingly large number of artists living in America (obviously, of all genders) had the path to the Arsenale smoothed for them. For some galleries, this was an additional selling point – yet there was not a trace of critical engagement with current global developments. This was present in an almost poetic way on Wednesday in front of the Russian Pavilion, when Pussy Riot, within 15 minutes, obscured the view behind yellow and blue plumes of smoke. Since Saturday, the music-belching, flower-adorned structure is to remain closed. The German Pavilion is well done – the focus shifts to eastern Germany; unfortunately, however, it is not self-explanatory. Huge queues outside the Austrian Pavilion, where every hour a naked woman acts as a bell clapper. The ’68ers were in the last century, nudity was a Nitsch thing, sexual liberation was political – but this? Just plain silly. Many African pavilions outside the Giardini and the Arsenale are interesting; Ukraine, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and the Bahamas are worth a look. And anyone wishing to visit Dries van Nooten’s exhibition should take a Valium beforehand if they suffer from claustrophobia.

Speaking of Venice and fire safety – at least according to German regulations, no one should be allowed in there anymore: Fire compartments, dual escape routes, mandatory signage, mandatory distances between buildings... oh, come on! That’s only for scaredy-cats – and we certainly have more than enough of those in German and European administrative bureaucracy. It’s also striking that a third of the tax revenue budget is spent on personnel costs – and the trend is rising exponentially. “Civil servants are eating away at the state” was a headline in Der Spiegel decades ago – and it’s still true! Perhaps we should simply admit fewer people to law school?

The insurance industry, meanwhile, pays little heed to the state of affairs in Venice – fortunately, one might say, otherwise we wouldn’t get to see many exhibitions and most restaurants would be closed...

Everyone talks about cutting red tape – we notice little of it: client meetings must be documented (we might try to pull a fast one on them, after all), and 15 hours of training time a year, disguised as product training from various providers, must be accounted for... Our Swiss colleagues have it worse; they have to undergo re-evaluation through an exam every year. Perfectly organised, but perhaps a bit excessive...

The conflict between the US and Iran continues to smoulder; the Russian military parade on 9 May was remarkably sparse, Israel continues to bomb Hezbollah positions in Lebanon – and by the end of this week, TEFAF New York will be in full swing – TEFAF as a word mark and not a reference to Europe in the US, that would be the icing on the cake.

On that note, have a good start to the week

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