Zilkens' News Blog

Zilkens' News Blog 6 2026

Another museum has been robbed: this time it was the Silver Museum in Doesburg (Netherlands), which in a very short time lost its entire collection of around 300 silver mustard pots, created between 1700 and 1920, to brazen thieves. Founded in 2021 and stocked from the collection of Martin de Kleijn, the museum was housed in the 13th-century St. Martin's Church in Doesburg. The rise in silver prices was probably the trigger here. Only silver exhibits were stolen – yet another proof that objects that can be easily converted into cash are particularly at risk in museums.

Elsewhere, the situation is also difficult. The inhabitants of cities with a long, great bourgeois heritage often elect parties to their local parliaments that understand culture only ideologically or not at all. Consequently, the administrations they control refuse to provide the necessary funds to adequately operate and maintain the museums. This creates a museum precariat! And the heritage often bequeathed to posterity is in danger of decaying. Even if artists' foundations can initially shoulder the costs of museums, they run out of liquid funds. This seems to be the case now with the Paul Delvaux Museum in Saint-Idesbald (a strange saint, never heard of him) in Belgium. The foundation has a large collection of Delvaux's works, but no money in its account. Foundations are generally obliged to preserve value, but they cannot constantly sell off their holdings just to meet their preservation obligations.

Some auction houses would be delighted to acquire good material, but the Zeller auction house in Lindau on Lake Constance is no longer one of them. After more than 60 years, it is now closing its doors. Customers and consignors are informed in a terse email that only the homepage for post-auction sales will remain open for a while. According to Stefan Kobel's reports, Sotheby's does not seem to be facing the same fate. Art financing appears to be big business, and classic cars are now being added to the mix to spread the risk. In recent years, the company's staff has also been reorganised, according to reports. However, the European Federation of Auctioneers (EFA) is receiving an increasing number of complaints about slow payments of auction proceeds to consignors. The interest on loans issued is simply more attractive than that on credit lines taken up.

While the information from the EFA is only known to a small circle, the complaints received by the insurance ombudsman (who is currently a woman) are published annually. There were 30,000 complaints last year, about 20% of which were not accepted, about 30% are still being reviewed to see if they can be accepted, but the other half have been evaluated and the winner is: motor insurance! This is followed by legal expenses insurance (with a strong upward trend), life insurance (no significant change) and liability insurance. When you consider the political and media hype, including at European level, about allegedly unfair behaviour, particularly by life insurers, leading to increased bureaucracy and control mania, instead of letting citizens take responsibility for their actions and the market, it seems that we are chasing a straw man. There are approximately 84 million life insurance policies in Germany and 3,246 complaints against them to the ombudsman! That is 0.0038% of the total portfolio. This does not warrant further regulation or intervention in the payment systems of the distributors.

Last week, I caused confusion with my comments about the artists' social security fund. I regret that. In the meantime, Monopol has published an article by Daniel Völzke that sums up the issue. However, the argument put forward by politicians and trade unions representing artists that the artists' social security fund is necessary to make artistic work possible in the first place seems rather flimsy. Germany is the only country in the world with such a social security system, as far as we know, and no art is created elsewhere? ...

And then there was Art Genève until Sunday, with 80 galleries in western Switzerland. Most of them from Switzerland and French-speaking regions. A few from Austria and none from Germany. Sales are good there, according to those who have been there more than twice. However, the booth rents are quite steep. EUR 100,000 is quickly spent, and as a gallery, you first have to recoup that. Prices are almost the same as in Basel. A white Fontana with two cuts went for EUR 2.7 million, but there was also a less typical one with five cuts for EUR 1.4 million. Christos Reichstag in a large version was offered for €550,000 and small works by Kawamata were available for less than €10,000. All in all, a solid fair for galleries and collectors.

Now we are hoping for a good Art in Karlsruhe, which begins on Wednesday, at the same time as Art Basel in Doha (Qatar) and Art Philippines in Manila. We wish the Ukrainians a week in which the drones are silent (P has allegedly promised T this – but both have their own understanding of the truth) and you a week full of enjoyable art experiences.

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