Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 31 2023

Stefan Kobel reviews the coverage of the auction world in the 503rd of all. The fairs are next.

A Propos Messe - Köln Messe has cancelled Exponatec for 2023, which would have taken place at the same time as Art Cologne. "The decision not to hold the fair in 2023 was made against the background of difficult economic conditions and too little potential, especially in the area of museums and cultural institutions. This overall situation is currently causing uncertainty in the exhibition and restoration industry with regard to investment and innovation." Let's quote the exhibition company in the original. Museums and cultural institutions have too little potential? One almost has the impression that the Cologne city administration has had a hand in forming this opinion, because they like to build new museums that are not necessarily needed - but they are falling into disrepair because nothing is done to maintain them. It's a bit like the German railways, whose infrastructure has also been allowed to fall into disrepair. The only difference is that it no longer smells in the trains like it does in front of the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne, which is waiting to be renovated, on the way from the cathedral to the philharmonic or vice versa.

That's really brave! - In the middle of the war, a biennial is being held in Kyiv from October - the fifth in the meantime. It will take place simultaneously at 6 locations: Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhgorod, Berlin, Vienna and Warsaw! In the three Ukrainian cities, the insurance industry will once again be up in arms and, citing a lack of reinsurance, will deny even the simplest of cover. At the moment, this also affects any potential investment in the infrastructure that is to be rebuilt. Even our big competitor Marsh has noticed that there is a need for action here. In Luxembourg, a think tank is working on solutions for Day X. We have the privilege of helping with this. We are allowed to help with this and know of 125 projects for which insurance is also needed.

The Art Loss Register is actually considered a guarantee that stolen works of art will no longer come into circulation. Now an important Austrian auction house has overlooked an entry and auctioned off a stolen work. Hopefully, it will still know the consignor and the buyer as well, because the work belongs to the insurance company that compensated it as a total loss.

That headlines can be misleading is shown by some of the press reactions to the BGH ruling on the deletion of entries in the Lost Art Database, which is operated by the German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Property (DZK). The plaintiff simply asked the wrong question. "Like the previous instances, the BGH rejected the claim because the search notification did not make any statement about the currently existing ownership." Lucas Elmenhorst concludes in Handelsblatt: "The BGH has thus clearly identified the defendant, the legal action and the basis of the claim. This is a win, not only for the collectors, but also for lawyers, auction houses and all those who had to fret in vain about Lost Art and the search notices in the past: because they had to rely on the claimants filing an application for cancellation because Lost Art refused and declared itself incompetent. The potential for blackmail was and is huge." The full article is here in German I am afraid.

We wish all our readers relaxing days

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