Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 6 2024

The art market is on the move - at least the people who shape it. Despite all the virtual mediation options, art fairs are on the rise again. Whether in India or Mexico, Geneva or Brussels, people are getting the chance to buy art in tents or closed rooms. Some of them with the $ signs in their eyes and the expectation that they can increase their fortunes - others simply because art is fun and enriching. But as much as Hiscox's digital Art Market Report actually points the way to a more "environmentally friendly" future for the art trade, people are still buying live and in color.

Markets want to be experienced and developed - internationalization as a concept for stabilizing earnings, as Deutsche Bank is currently demonstrating. However, many a political force in their own country has not yet understood this. German and European regulation - one is inclined to see this as a regulatory frenzy - is forcing companies to think about their location. In the insurance industry, too, this can ultimately cost jobs if the number of national production sites continues to fall. Services alone do not feed an economy. The well-intentioned efforts towards a supply chain law help the moral conscience of members of all genders of the European parliaments - in international competition they are happy about it - and ultimately it comes across as arrogant and that takes its revenge. Americans (whether South or North), Indians and Chinese do not want to be told how to produce by Europeans.

AXA was one of the first insurers to write to its customers and inform them that the risk of war on the sea route around Yemen (i.e. ultimately through the Suez Canal) is no longer insured. The corresponding clause in the contracts has been terminated in accordance with the conditions. The beneficiaries are specialty markets that cover these risks at correspondingly higher rates.

Do you know "brand eins"? Of course you know the magazine, which has been published monthly for 26 years. The February issue deals with communication in times of fake news under the headline: "Now it's time to lie back!" It's worth a read - perhaps you'll find additional strength to take action against the alarming developments, especially in the German East.

This week is Weiberfastnacht and the street carnival, which guarantees collective drunkenness in some places. As we all know, the next Monday is the one named after roses, even though it only rains sweets from the sky. Reason enough to publish the next Art Week on Violet Tuesday.

A good week to everyone in the hope that it will bring us closer to more peaceful times.

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