Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 35 2025

Only 17 weeks to go – and then this year will be behind us again. Tempus fugit, and despite frenzied diplomatic travel between Alaska and the White House, the Russian potentates are digging in their heels. Even on Ukrainian Independence Day – which was yesterday – the bombing continued. Ukraine is now increasingly building its own weapons, having learned that the lofty speeches of its Western partners are often nothing but hot air. This can also be transferred to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, although the latter has always maintained its readiness to defend itself. Every Swiss household has at least one rifle.

Cologne hosted Gamescom, a trade fair for computer games and everything related to them. Over 350,000 people attended in a very short time, with an additional 630 million viewers online, meaning that half of China or half of India was there. Great marketing for the trade fair company in Cologne. These are figures that every art fair dreams of – including Art Cologne. Very few attract more than 50,000 visitors. But even they form a network and a market that is quite transparent, even if some people are again and again hiding their unwillingness to understand behind allegations of money laundering and lack of transparency in the art trade. Prof. Klaus Honnef wrote a comment on LinkedIn that I would like to quote here in part, as I couldn't put it any better myself:

" Is the art market really as intransparent as is generally rumoured? Are mysterious things going on in the art market? No. It is a market like any other, where demand determines prices. Like any market, it is not free from manipulation, deception, tricks and false promises; like any market, there are reputable and less reputable dealers. That's it. But anyone who deals intensively with the art market will find neither secrecy nor lack of transparency. I have been actively involved in the art market since 1965 and have learned a great deal. The art market is just as opaque as football if you don't know the rules. It is basically true that the most expensive artists are the best, even though art history knows of artists who were highly esteemed during their lifetime but were forgotten for centuries until they were rediscovered again, such as El Greco, Vermeer and many female artists. There are many reasons why the art market is not doing as well now as it was ten years ago. For example, belief in the value of art is gradually letting up, in both senses of the term. Furthermore, the art market is only opaque insofar as too many men and women consider themselves artists and want to frequent it. Does Berlin need 10,000 artists? Moreover, there are not as many daily newspapers as there were half a century ago that reported on art; at that time, there were also passionately orchestrated controversies that fuelled interest in art. With a few exceptions, contemporary art criticism is now conducted online, which is truly confusing. Ultimately, the idea of art is no longer regulated by a general and binding concept of art; no movement or style dominates, so that it takes some effort and a lot of work to look behind the scenes. When people ramble on about the lack of transparency in the art trade and the artistic field, they are deliberately obscuring the issue..."

Local elections are coming up soon in some German states. Some educational institution has come up with an election guide tailored to the respective cities. Thirty questions, the answers to which can be weighted, are supposed to help you make a decision. I tried it for Cologne, the city where I was born and where my family lives since around 1870, with a rather shocking result. No matter how I shifted the weightings, the wrong party always came out on top. When I imagine that there are people who see such a tool as a real decision-making aid and then act accordingly, the election results are likely to surprise many. Manipulated by their own hands and deprived of their freedom. No XY will be able to help them then.

Are you aware that no German university appears among the 50 best universities in the world? This reflects political will and a witch hunt against elites that has been going on for years in the opinion-forming organs. In the beginning, it was the demigods in white, then the mass of doctoral theses, some of which were not properly cited, followed by language simplification and even language confusion. First, Bologna was worshipped, engineering degrees were abolished, magister's degrees were turned into master's degrees, and the resulting disaster is being hushed up. Otherwise, significant changes would have to be made to education policy and the fear and envy towards elites would have to be dispelled. University start-ups have a much harder time in Germany than in other countries. There is also a lack of entrepreneurial spirit in research and teaching because entrepreneurship is often still understood in the old Marxist way at universities. This is true of almost all faculties, press organs and political parties, whose future leaders rarely want to work outside their political circles. Perhaps it would help if we forced politicians to pursue a normal career outside their cosy little circles after they are re-elected once. Supervisory boards are also required by law to take a cooling-off period before moving to new responsibilities on the executive board.

Only six weeks to go until the big renewal in the European insurance industry. Contracts that have not been terminated or had their notice period shortened by 30 September will be automatically extended. However, it is questionable whether premium changes are actually possible in the more complex and volatile areas, which include transport and art insurance. The natural disasters of recent months are also affecting this market.

Stefan Kobel reports on six months of auction coverage...

We wish you all a good start to the week.

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