Zilkens'
News Blog

Zilkens‘ News Blog 43 2025

It was in the news – big headline, jewels stolen from the Louvre yesterday! And from the Napoleonic era, too. The thieves – or were they men? – lost a few on the run! The pattern is familiar from Berlin and Dresden – anomalies in business operations expose gaps that criminals then exploit to make off with the loot.

Starting on Wednesday, around 220 people will gather in Athens for IFASIC, the International Fine Art and Specie Insurance Conference. This will be a topic of discussion, especially since it is unclear whether the French state will have to write off the loss under state liability. The premiums for 20 years of insurance would be cheaper. A few people from Germany will also be attending, including around six service providers and two insurers. A sad result for one of the largest markets in Europe. But presumably the other 120 or so eligible participants from Germany are in Paris to shop extensively at Art Basel in the Grand Palais. Alternatively, there is Parallel Vienna in the 18th arrondissement, in Paris, mind you. Supported by various public bodies and the Bründlmayer winery, whose Grüner Veltliner is finding its way around the world as a highly drinkable wine. That's what you call location marketing! Someone in Berlin or Cologne should take note. Quietly, for those who prefer Zurich to Paris, there is the Art Salon in new premises. We are sponsoring the best booth and Heinrich Carstens is on the jury.

The GDR has not existed for a good 36 years, but how many of you, dear readers, have been there before? Perhaps with a tour group from the land of the class enemy, the capitalist West? Then you may remember that a tour guide joined you at the border and stayed with you throughout the trip, and that in every town a city guide joined you to explain the remnants of feudal structures on the basis of Romanesque or Gothic churches. At some point, no one in the socialist brother country wanted to believe their narrative anymore – concrete denial of reality led to massive changes. Which brings us to the current debate on the German cityscape. Calling things by their name is not racist or exclusionary – rather, it takes into account the sensibilities of a silent majority that is now moving towards the authoritarian fringes because they no longer feel understood. BSW, Linke, AfD: who cares, as long as something happens. Long intellectual deductions, firewalls and election campaign promises do not get through. This is also a truth that our fourth estate cannot bring itself to accept because, in its moralising sense of mission, it excludes the recipient. The recipient, in turn, only sees that cities are changing, that the potential for aggression is increasing in trams and buses, that people who went too far on New Year's Eve in Cologne also harbour a latent hatred of Israel and do not distinguish between the state, its government and its people, ultimately leading to a shift in the reality of life in cities. The fact that our Jewish fellow citizens feel less and less safe and welcome is a shameful development – no matter how migrant our country is. There are no-go areas in cities – and I invite anyone who takes issue with Merz's statement to take a look at the situation around Cologne's Neumarkt or the main railway station. That is the reality that ordinary citizens have to live with and do not want!

Have you ever heard of 50-year-old Caroline Gennez? She has been Minister for Welfare, Poverty Reduction, Culture and Equal Opportunities in Flanders since 2024. She studied political science in Leuven and then worked for socialist organisations and parties at various levels. She actually has nothing to do with culture – or perhaps she does, just this much: She wants Flanders to be more visible in the cultural sphere – and she has achieved this in less than a year. However, she has done so with a concept whose author can confidently be removed from any staffing plan, as public funds can be used more efficiently. Antwerp is to become the centre of fine arts; Ghent is to represent contemporary art and Ostend is to pay homage to Belgian art and modernism! It is clear that everything before 1850 is beautiful. The Ghent Altarpiece will have to move, and in Bruges, the Memling House must be demolished urgently so that the collection can be displayed in Antwerp. Antwerp residents with an interest in contemporary art will then have to go to Ghent, because the M HKA is to be closed and converted into a studio house. Anyone who has ever been there knows that this can only be achieved with considerable difficulty and financial resources. Mme Gennez would like to spread her cornucopia across her other areas of responsibility. Perhaps, like many old socialists, she is convinced of the just cause of the people in Russia, and Bart de Baere, the boss in Antwerp, has committed a massive faux pas by lending works of art to the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv in 2022 with the approval of the Flemish government at the time. Some of these were then on display in Cologne in November 2022 – the exhibition was called "worth fighting for" and showcased the independence of Ukrainian contemporary art.

All the best