Insuring liability

We have conceived special insurance solutions to meet our clients’ individual needs with very competitive conditions.  For members of the German art historians’ association “Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker e.V.”, we provide a professional liability insurance and an errors and omissions insurance specially designed for professionials in the art world.

http://www.kunsthistoriker.org/berufshaftpflicht.html

Even if you are not a member of a professional association, we have individual insurance solutions, either flexible or made-to-measure, for art historians. 

We will need you to fill out and sign the brokerage contract as well as the filled application form so that we can realise the offer with insurers. Sorry that the whole documentation will be in German.

Please send us the signed application and the brokerage contract by scanning (haffmann@zilkens.com), fax: +49 (0)221 80068421 or by post: Eupener Straße 70, 50933 Cologne, Germany. 

Why do you need professional liability insurance or errors and omissions insurance at all? If, in the course of your occupational activities, you harm third parties or such parties come to grief because of you or your occupational activities, be the damage physical, material or financial, you can be made liable in accordance with § 823 of the German Civil Code (BGB). To protect you from such financial demands, we offer you the option of insurance cover in the form of professional liability insurance and pecuniary damage liability insurance. The insurer settles justified claims and repels unjustified claims for you. Below we show a few practical examples for the sake of clarity and understanding. 

Examples of damage for classical professional liability insurance for art historians: 

• You accidentally spill paint on the floor and a third party slips on it and injures himself.
• On a guided tour, someone falls over the bag that you put down and injures himself. After that he or she is unable to work for three days.
• You drop the object to be assessed and it breaks into pieces.
• A painting is torn while being framed
• During the assessment process you cause a “dog-ear” in a valuable book.

Examples of damage for errors and omissions insurance for art historians:

• You are organising an exhibition and write a false exhibition date in the invitation, as a result of which everyone comes too early. Travel expenses are incurred.
• You give a false recommendation for conservation.
• You make a mistake while assessing the conservation of a historical monument. Your client suffers financial loss as a result.
• When preparing a catalogue you overlook some works.
• An expert opinion on a painting’s value is too high and the client pays too much for the work in question. He demands compensation from you.
• While giving an expert opinion you overlook important sources and come to false conclusions – the client is suing you for the resultant pecuniary consequences. 

Please talk to us about it. We’ll be glad to advise you.