Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 46 2024

There are journalists of both sexes who seriously report that the American electoral system is complex! The Winner takes it all has nothing to do with complexity. The principle creates large majorities that are far from protecting minorities. However, it also creates power that is not subject to any democratic control by an opposition that is based on anything close to the actual majority situation. The United States probably only just avoided civil war with the election of the 78-year-old. None of this should be reassuring – but we have until 20 January 2025 to rearrange our thoughts and perhaps develop our own position in Europe.

However, this requires a reflection on democratic virtues by those in government (is there greed in the word?) of our country, their majority is gone - majorities with the help of the AfD are considered IHH-Bah-Pfui but resigning is probably not an option either. Have you not yet earned enough pension entitlement, Mr Wissing? Or why are Mr Scholz and Co. clinging to their chairs? Managing in office means preparing for third-party liability claims - at least in the free economy. For politics, obviously, the aim is to create more bureaucracy and liability for companies, but to keep away from themselves. Is that why the press always talks about civil society? In a democracy, this word mocks everything that corresponds to the sovereign, namely the citizen entitled to vote. There is actually only one society that has been constituted by laws in a state. Whoever invented the nonsense of civil society may please step forward! Or does it come from the sports facilities of the Republic, where there are separate jurisdictions that sometimes have nothing to do with normal life?

The Registrars from Europe met in Rome last week. Around 900 came to the Holy City to exchange ideas about the future possibilities of exhibitions and cultural events in the museum sector. Environmental issues were at the top of the agenda – a little counterproductive in this respect was the selection of the respective locations for the social events. There, the carbon footprint was heavily used. For those who like to plan well in advance: the date of the next European Registrars Conference is 4-6 November 2026 in Berlin. Let's see if Berlin in November is as attractive as Rome. In any case, the German Registrars (there is no separate word for it in German, so gendering is pointless) will meet on 5 and 6 May 2025 in Saarbrücken.

Wonderful - we no longer need artists... AI makes it possible and Sotheby's is leading the way. Some programming idiot has programmed something that could possibly be art, and a moron, who of course remains anonymous and whose gender cannot be determined, offers over a million of any currency to purchase it. May he suffer the same fate as those who consider NFT to be the democratisation of art. Galleries remain essential development aid workers for artists.

Art insurers are pleased about art-trade-customary packaging in the context of their conditions. But what is art-trade-customary in times of tight budgets and inflation? A definition is nowhere to be found - so off with the Picasso on the back seat of the convertible under the dog blanket...

By the way – From Thursday to Sunday, visitors to Art Cologne almost trampled each other to death. Shortening the fair by one day eliminated the quiet second day. However, a lot of art was also purchased. Many galleries reported good to very good sales (‘the best sales since I was here 10 years ago’ ...). Some grumbled about various fees in advance or about stand prices that had to be paid and in which concrete pillars were not excluded from the m² calculation. That's something you should try at Art Basel Paris. As is well known, it still rains in during the Art Basel Paris and no insurer dares to refuse coverage for it – and that's a good thing.

Enjoy a week without major world political events, such as the elections in the USA.

Stay healthy and favour us

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