Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 2 2026

That's it for a peaceful start to the New Year – the American president has thrown a spanner in the works and pushed Russia's atrocities into the background for the time being. Maduro rigged the elections to stay in power (Trump is redrawing electoral districts), the Venezuelan state confiscated and nationalised the assets of American oil companies decades ago (the same thing is currently happening to many Western companies in Russia), and he is said to be promoting corruption in the country in addition to drug trafficking (how should we assess the cooperation between American tech giants and the American government?). Reading the arguments used by the Trump administration to justify Maduro's abduction, there are a few other figures of a very different calibre who currently exercise power with dubious legitimacy who should fear for their own positions. In terms of international law, this is more than delicate, revealing an American administration that is independent of all conventions and will stop at nothing. Disruptive is probably the right word for it – and it will be interesting to see how the world adapts to this in the mid-term. Wishful thinking will not help, in any case. And Greenland could be the next target. That would be the end of NATO – much to Putin's delight.

The art trade is now completely globalised – in addition to Geneva, an art fair is now also held in Qatar at the beginning of the year, the latter under the aegis of Art Basel. The composition and sales of the exhibitors will certainly be closely monitored. Uncertainty is also poison for the art trade, because art is beautiful and involves a lot of work, as Karl Valentin already knew, but spending large amounts of money on it when economic data is less reliable due to political circumstances is rather questionable. Since the American population allows its country's politics to consist essentially of deals that also benefit the Trump family's fortune in some way, it is unlikely that art will play a role in this. Mar-a-Lago may be ostentatiously gilded, but there is little great art to be seen. And the finance minister is no longer Mnuchin and no longer has any family connections to the art trade.

Even in this scenario, it could make sense to turn to other markets. The problem is that neither the Arab states nor China can be considered intellectually cosmopolitan – censorship is always a possibility in their environment. This is one more reason why we in Cologne are trying to find artists in exile who are interested in a studio scholarship. Further information is available at artistsinexile.de . And if you know anyone, please pass on the information. Thank you.

Although there were a few terrible accidents at the turn of the year, the art insurance world seems to have been spared. There were no insured art treasures in the church in Amsterdam. The sense of security surrounding the vaults of savings banks and cooperative banks has been shaken after vaults in Gelsenkirchen and other cities were broken into and robbed. No motion detectors inside – no vibration detectors – no cameras! This is so close to gross negligence on the part of those responsible for these companies and their insurers that one wonders who failed to do what and for what reasons. Our insurers ask us – and therefore our customers – for all kinds of details regarding the storage of easily convertible items, and woe betide anyone who doesn't have a motion detector in front of their safe at home, because that leads to discussions. Let's hope that the Sparkasse's D&O insurers don't have to step in because the contents insurers refuse to cover the contents due to negligence or only settle with discounts. That's something to look forward to...

Liberty Mutual SE can look forward to it. Since 1 January, David Saillen has been appointed Chief Underwriter Europe, which means he is responsible for underwriting guidelines and the interpretation of underwriting policy across all lines of business in Europe. To date, he has built up the art and specie portfolio stringently and successfully, and now property, liability, cyber, D&O, transport, technical insurance and whatever else fits in with the non-life insurer are being added. This is a huge task, and we congratulate him and wish him every success. People in art insurance can do more than just insure art – and so can we.

Since 1 January, we are part of the ATTIKON Group, which comprises more than 30 insurance brokers under the same ownership. The group makes us stronger in advising on insurance issues that go beyond art. Put us to the test – that is one of our team's wishes for the start of the year.

We wish you a good start to the first working week of 2026. May you begin the year with health, happiness and success. We are happy to support you wherever we can with our expertise.

Yours faithfully, Stephan Zilkens and the team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker in Solothurn and Cologne.