Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 26 2023

Today the 498th of all is published, i.e. for 9 years and 30 weeks you have regularly received Kobel's annotated press review on the art market free of charge as a service of our house. We will celebrate the 500th issue in Cologne on 8 July at 6:30 pm with Stefan Kobel and a small circle of invited guests. We have reserved 2 seats for our loyal readers. Register at zilkens@zilkens.com if you would like to attend. The draw will decide.

How stupid are we to be taken for in the Prigozhin affair? Someone has 25,000 former prisoners under arms and is using them for money and well-equipped in the fight against Ukraine. In a totalitarian state - and the former Soviet Union, which today calls itself Russia, is nothing else - this does not happen uncontrolled and certainly not without state resources. Formally, the mercenaries are not subordinate to the government - de facto they do its work. Then a mutiny is staged in which the mercenary leader expresses doubts about the reason for the war, is accused of treason and stabbing by the president, only to be persuaded to change his mind less than 24 hours later by the intervention of another potentate whose country also borders Ukraine. The high treason is punished with amnesty and the delinquent disappears to Belarus. Putin then announces that all the goals of his special operation will be achieved. And why? Because all the do-gooders in the West are distracted and do not (want to) see the presumably true motive: The mercenary leader can now conduct his attacks on Kyiv from Belarus without formally getting their fingers dirty with the two potentates in Minsk and in Moscow, who are already staring at the dirt. But perhaps Prigozhin is in Africa, where he is also commanding murderous thugs or has already been murdered. In any case, political wishful thinking does not lead to change in Moscow.

The whole thing comes just a few days after the European insurance industry, with a lot of state support, finally agreed to cover necessary investments in Ukraine with insurance, thus making the risk more manageable for the respective investors. This also means that art exhibitions are still not reasonably insurable in the country - but a start has been made. Let's hope that the defenders will continue to be supported with enough efficient weapon systems to tackle the investments as well.

Nationalism in Europe continues to spread. Italy's great museums such as the Uffizi, Capodimonte or the Brera are currently run by non-Italians. The positions have now been advertised and Ms Melloni's administration is communicating under the table that foreign applicants tend not to have a chance. This also means the end for the current incumbents. It's a pity - a breath of fresh air from outside sometimes helps to sharpen perspectives and improve quality.

Everyone is focusing on reducing CO² emissions. The logistics industry, too, especially in the field of art storage. Hasenkamp is currently building its second warehouse with 11,700m² of storage space, which will be powered by geothermal energy and thus be completely climate-neutral. In Vienna, Brussels, Amsterdam and Munich there are other warehouses of the group that are air-conditioned according to the same principle. Regardless of fluctuating climatic conditions outside the warehouse, the same temperature and humidity always prevail inside. - Ideal for works of art.

All parties had allied against the AfD in Sonneberg and yet the candidate of the party monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution received more than 50% of the votes with an increased turnout. Are more than 30% of all eligible voters in the district now suspected right-wing radicals? Or does a policy characterised by a mania for regulation and decree, in order not to do anything wrong, lead to so much annoyance that the content no longer plays a role in the decision to vote. In any case, the question of which body one would like to be in is probably quite irrelevant to 98% of the population. Nevertheless, there is now to be a legal regulation of this, which is hardly comprehensible, at least for old white men. Sigmund Freud once wrote about the joke as a necessary valve function to avoid pent-up aggression. What is currently offered to us in the public media as funny is no longer amusing. Soft language and self-imposed taboos to avoid the shitstorm in the a-social media, with simultaneous eloquent speechlessness with laugh and clap commands for the audience on public broadcasting suggests that boredom is deliberate. Perhaps one should not turn away in disgust at jokes that spring from the primordial soup of one's own socialisation and call for the public prosecutor. A good laugh - and that's it.

We wish you a brilliant start to a pleasant summer week with lots of art and pleasure.

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