Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 28 2023

So now the 500th of them all - and very big thanks to Stefan Kobel, who week after week takes on the art market reportage with commentary and brings out the pearls. However, he also looks into the rotten oysters and warns against enjoying them. When we started our joint project 9 years and 30 weeks ago, I was initially afraid that a critical spirit would not be welcome everywhere and that customers or those who wanted to become customers would be frightened away by some open comments. In the meantime, these fears have faded away - even though the subject matter we are all dealing with is highly emotional. As we learn almost daily from the (a)social media, the repetition of false truths does not make the world better, only more polarised. This makes an independent view of the world all the more important, and we are pleased about the many good responses to Kobel's art week.

Nothing new in the East - the war in Ukraine is already going on for more than 16 months and there is no end in sight. The Russian leadership and its supporters are showing the world their ugly face with mercenary armies, rapists, war criminals, cultural destroyers and the use of outlawed weapons. Now, like is to be fought with like - but this comes up against moral barriers for many. But the Russian government has never adhered to morality - its representatives are dishonourable in this respect and that is precisely why Ukraine must not become defenceless.

In Germany, people are surprised at the rise of the AfD, but no one is taking apart their election programme sentence by sentence - it's a slogan fight with rough words that don't catch on. At the same time, Christian roots are eroding on the territory of the former Federal Republic - the GDR had long since radically removed them and put the "protective hand" of the Politburo in their place. The people's guide rails are increasingly materialistically oriented - and there are dangers looming that are difficult for even the halfway educated to control mentally. Last week I met an old art teacher from our school again after what felt like 45 years. He always tried to teach his students the basics of art history, including Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Since Cologne has several examples of this - mainly church buildings - he took the pupils there. As a result, parents complained: "they had not left the church to see that their children were now learning the history of architecture from churches". The country that has such parents need not be surprised about a lack of openness in dealing with other ideas.

The mania for order and regulation continues with every session of the German Bundestag. Houses to be sold by real estate agents that do not have an energy certificate will probably have to be offered by them as demolition houses. Demolition house sounds like a ramshackle building - the political aim is to ensure that no house changes hands without an energy performance certificate. There are supposed to be people who don't care about the certificate, who appreciate the architecture of a building even if it consists only of glass and steel from the 1960s, and who pay market prices for it. So what is the point of regulating it by law?

It would be more important to mobilise the positive forces and point out commonalities that can be shared by as many people as possible without fear. No new laws are needed for this.

The summer holidays are slowly settling over the regions, and it is supposedly getting quieter. Just a fair in Tokio and Stefan Kobel reports about it. Restart of the auction season later in the year.

A relaxing summer week to all and, if you are working, successful experiences with and around the arts - the others have them anyway ...

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