Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 44 2022

In 14 days, Claudia Roth will open the exhibition "Worth Fighting For" in Cologne. Works by more than 20 Ukrainian artists in dialogue with works by Kerry James Marshall, Jan Fabre and Luc Tuymans, among others, show the independence of Ukrainian culture. Cars used to be sold at the exhibition venue. This explains the high budget for the exhibition, in addition to the transport costs and the artists' fees. Temporary walls have to be erected so that the art can be shown. Teams from Ukraine, Belgium, Austria and Germany are working together here. Anyone who would like to support the project with a donation is welcome to do so - every amount helps: Rotary Deutschland Gemeindienst e.V. IBAN DE80 3007 0010 0394 1200 00 and please write in the reason for payment: Club Nr. 21929 Project 0219292322 "Worth Fighting For" . You will then receive a tax-deductible donation receipt.

Lula won the election in Brazil with the narrowest of all conceivable results: 50.8% against 49.2%. Brazil, too, is divided and it remains to be seen whether the incumbent will accept this result or make volte-face like a real estate speculator in the USA. The degree of injury to those who think differently in this election campaign was enormous - the support of religious circles was essential for mobilising the poorer sections of the population either for Bolsonaro or for Lula - neutral goes differently but all in the name of the Bible.

The Art Collection of North Rhine-Westphalia can rejoice - it has managed to buy insurance cover for the next year at a bargain price. The whole thing is so cheap that one may ask oneself whether there really is a risk carrier behind it, because the conditions are hairy in addition to the price: the notice period for claims - which, by the way, applies to both sides - is no longer 30 days as usual, but 6 months. This means that if the insurer wants to part with the risk because it has good reasons to do so, it must hope for six months that nothing happens. Damage due to temperature and light fluctuations is also insured, by the way. The question is how to prove here that the damage occurred in the insured period? Condition reports are still strongly subject to subjective perceptions. After a claim, the sums insured are automatically replenished without any additional premium for the insurer, who may then have paid 30 million from the initial sum insured. The sharpest point, however, is the co-insurance of war risks in cross-border transport. For air and sea transport this is normal, for land transport it can be agreed. However, the automatic co-insurance pretends that transports to and from war zones are insured against damage caused by war. Here, the calculation may have been made without the reinsurers, who in Baden-Baden and Monte Carlo demand higher prices and risk exclusions for contract extensions. Investments and material goods in Ukraine can hardly be insured even against normal risks such as fire or tap water because the insurance industry worldwide refuses to address the issue constructively. - Putin is pleased ...

Last Tuesday, this year's Deloitte Art and Finance Conference took place in Rome at the venerable Vatican. More than 250 people from 26 countries experienced discussion forums around the topic of sustainability and financing in the art market. Rarely enough at conferences dealing with finance and art, representatives of the Catholic Church also had their say. Unfortunately, they did not stay for the discussion panels - that might have opened up further perspectives. Of course, it was also about NFT and the question: have they come to stay? One can continue to be sceptical because, like Bitcoin, they evade the rules that are supposed to prevent money laundering.

Stefan Kobel reports in detail on the departure of Marc Spiegler from Art Basel. It is astonishing that Spiegler's consultancy contract only lasts 6 months. That sounds like a golden handshake, if it's not meant as a transitional solution to something much more exciting - and there are already rumours about that, too.

If you're still in the mood for art fairs in this short week: Discovery Art Fair in Frankfurt/Main from 3 November - Otherwise, wait until it gets cooler and the post-summer fades straight into winter.

We wish you all a strong week and a good start to the winter time. Your Stephan Zilkens and the team of Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Cologne and Solothurn