Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 3 2024

Johann König opens another gallery in Mexico City. Corina Krawinkel, who has long been a collector and museum patron in Cologne, will be in charge of setting up the gallery. Young Mexican positions are to be the focus and strengthen the current wave reminiscent of New York in the 1980s, according to Artnet. At the beginning of February, a delegation from the Federal Association of German Galleries, sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Environment, will also be travelling to Mexico to explore the market opportunities. In terms of insurance, investing in Mexico is not easy. The country is protectionist. For permanent solutions, you still need a Mexican broker and a Mexican insurance company. Temporary exhibitions work according to the rules of transport insurance. International programmes are only worthwhile for insurers above a certain size and local cover often requires a premium equivalent to between EUR 2,500 and EUR 5,000. This is more than most galleries pay for their cover at home.

The floods at the beginning of the year have revitalised the discussion about natural hazard insurance. Climate change is also a part of it, but it actually has a lot to do with geological logic that there is water in river valleys and flood plains from time to time. This can be insured if a sufficient number of comparable risks are prepared to pay contributions. It can also be made compulsory - this automatically reduces the need for state assistance. It is not so fine to stylise such events as emergencies in order to release any brakes. Many people have already been harmed without brakes, but not in such an intergenerational way in the future.

In 2005, the Biennale of Contemporary Art was launched in Moscow, which has - surprise, surprise? - no longer taken place in 2022. Its founder and curator Joseph Backstein has now died in London at the age of 78.

Concerns about the development of democracy are growing because minorities are being marginalised in countries where "the winner takes it all" applies. In Germany and Switzerland, other electoral principles apply. It can be difficult to get sufficient majorities for governments. So the phase in which nothing has been decided is always unstable. This could be very decisive for Ukraine this year. In the USA, there is the threat of a battle between old men in a highly emotionalised campaign whose controllers and financiers are not necessarily transparent, and in Germany there are elections in three East German states where people are looking for a break from constant change, because everything has changed in these states since 1990, while in the West only the postcode has changed ... .

The art market is optimistic about the future. Singapore has the first fair this year, followed immediately by Geneva. Karlsruhe is not far away and TEFAF and Art Basel in Hong Kong are just as tempting as Art Dubai was previously. So art can be experienced, communicated and sold in very different regions. The ecological footprint is not factored in. But this already played only a symbolic role for the participants of the last World Climate Conference in Dubai.

Stay optimistic and stay with us - we wish you a strong week.

The Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH team in Solothurn and Cologne