Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 25 2023

Now this edition of Art Basel is over again - and we are looking forward to the continuation of the success stories from the first day, when not only a spider by Louise Bourgeois changed hands for 22.5 million EUR/CHF/USD but also one or two million-dollar deals were announced. Whether the beautiful Mark Rothko made it into new hands for 60 million is still unclear at the moment. Now, in any case, everything is being packed up again - much less hectically than in the past at Art Basel Hong Kong, where the exhibitors and forwarding agents had to clear the field completely by 3 a.m. - and brought back. The insurers' expressions relax, even if no one knows whether 3 billion worth of art was really brought together by 284 galleries. After all, that would be close to 11 million per gallery and many participants on the first floor didn't even have 2 million with them. Regardless of the values, it was beautiful and stimulating. Stefan Kobel reported himself and also found others who reported.

The Biennial in Sharjah has also ended in the meantime and left a lasting impression on many. After all, for 30 years and for the 15th time, the small emirate has dared to show contemporary art without any religious connection in a rather religious environment. "Thinking historically in the present" (Okwui Enwezor) was the title and found mention in the German-speaking world in Kunstforum and Monopol, among others. Actually, there should be more, because dialogue between continents through art can help overcome borders and fears.

Last Friday, one did not know whether to congratulate the art colleagues of Arte Generali when one read that the company had acquired Liberty Seguros S.A.. But only Liberty Seguros and not Liberty specialty markets, which wants to continue to develop the art insurance market in Europe for itself with a growth strategy. For us brokers, this is a good situation, as diversity is maintained and the number of risk carriers remains unchanged.

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Kronauer retired at the end of May. For decades he was the face of AXA ART in Germany below the Board of Management and in recent years he helped to determine the fate of ARTE GENERALI as Chief Underwriting officer. He got his start at Nordstern when the group was still looking for art historians who were willing to learn the insurance business. From here we wish him all the best - there should also be a life after his vocation.

Typical France, one might think, when one hears the story of the auctioneer Marc-Arthur Kohn, who at the age of 77 has now been definitively banned from his profession because 22 years ago he put a fake sculpture by Ossip Zadkine into circulation. The injured party brought a lawsuit in 2004, which was decided in his favour 10 years later. The next instance took only half as long and the auctioneer had in the meantime exceeded 70, which gave him the chance to wind up his business. The fact that he lost his licence only now is probably due to the fact that he didn't want to quit completely. A French solution.

Attitude can be many things - the regulatory elements in Brussels and Berlin have now also issued labelling regulations for meat in order to protect the consumer from greed (yes, whose greed, actually). Now you are offered sausage from a more suitable holding. The question is: do they mean with or from? (German Wordgame - difficult to translate) For me, there is always something rather decadent and spoiled about the whole tug-of-war over the sole route to salvation in nutrition: there are huge areas on our planet where people live who would be happy to have a regular meal a day to survive - there it doesn't matter what kind of farming it comes from - the main thing is that it's edible. In our latitudes, population development has been stagnating for years and prosperity is still increasing - although one has the impression that politics (and the fourth power that no longer controls it sufficiently) does not trust the people living here with their own ability to judge - so much regulation is being put in place. Amazing that we are still allowed to vote every 4 years - not amazing that the parties want to extend the election cycles even further (dare less democracy!) not amazing at all that voter turnout is constantly decreasing - Citizens may feel they are no longer part of the same entity.

We wish you a week without new ordinances and laws, with anticipation of the coming holiday joys and enjoyable encounters with art

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