Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 45 2023

You will read the 517th edition of Kobel's Art Week. But before that, this:

The Journal des Arts has published a brief survey of the art insurance market in France. The constantly rising value of artworks should mean that more and more museums, dealers and collectors have to insure their works. From the outside, the French market appears competitive, as new players from England and Switzerland have entered the market. On the other hand, only a small proportion of collections are actually insured. So there is still plenty of potential. However, fewer and fewer players are taking part in public tenders because they do not produce economically viable results. That sounds somehow familiar. And the state guarantees on offer don't seem to be a real solution either. Ultimately, the taxpayer is footing the bill and that's? - That's right, we do!

At the van Ham auction on 30 November, a work whose artist nobody knows will be auctioned off under lot number 315. Daman Emmanoulidi's portrait of Georgia, which has slipped into the Bundeskunsthalle as if by magic between the curated pictures in the exhibition "Who we are. Questions for an Immigration Country", is now to be auctioned off in aid of Art Asyl e.V. There is no minimum bid - every cent goes to the association.

FINMA - Switzerland's financial supervisory authority - also monitors the insurance industry and intermediaries. In recent weeks, it has held a road show for all registered intermediaries in Switzerland to explain the changes to the law on intermediaries decided by politicians on 1 January 2024. There was nothing overbearing or top-down. Open and factual information with the admission that we could not yet foresee all possible problems with implementation. All documents were available immediately and digitally. This is the kind of attitude we would like to see in our own country.

And once again Switzerland and its railways: they have now added an "Easy Ride" button to their app, which allows you to pay simply by swiping your thumb when boarding public transport. And they are still on time.

Following HDI and Generali, QBE is now also entering the market with capacity for art insurance in Germany and Austria. DUAL, previously active as an underwriting agent for the Howden Group in areas such as financial loss liability, is now also building up capacity in the art sector with Dietmar Telschow, who was supposed to try to keep the art division of XL a Company of AXA moving during Corona. But, dear competitors of all genders, who only sell your services on price, this is no time to rejoice. Ultimately, underwriting agencies work like insurers: if results are poor, they lose the basis of their business or have to reorganise.

The Meloni government has appointed a new president for the Venice Biennale, who is expected to take office a month before the opening next year. Roberto Ciutto's contract will not be renewed. Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, who comes from Sicily, seems to have made a name for himself more as a journalist and writer, including a biography of Berlusconi, than as the head of a cultural institution. A certain restlessness is spreading among Italy's intellectuals, but we will have to wait and see what the "fire-breather" (Buttafuoco literally translated) brings about.

We wish you all a week full of vigilance and the occasional enjoyment of the arts

Yours

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