The global art market is not immune to current economic and geopolitical tensions, and is counting on a new generation of collectors to revitalise the momentum.
Some big transactions were concluded last week during Art Basel, the world’s top contemporary art fair, notably by London’s Annely Juda Fine Art gallery, which sold a David Hockney painting for between US$13mil and US$17mil, without disclosing the exact price.
The David Zwirner gallery sold a sculpture by Ruth Asawa for US$9.5mil and a Gerhard Richter painting for US$6.8mil.
However, prices did not reach the heights achieved in 2022, when the art market was in full swing. Back then, a sculpture by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois was purchased for US$40mil.
“The market is certainly softer,” Art Basel’s chief executive Noah Horowitz told AFP, though major sales still happen at such fairs “despite, somehow, all that’s going on in the world”.
Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS and the research and consulting firm Arts Economics prepared a report for the fair.
According to their estimates, the art market slowed in 2023, then fell by 12 percent globally in 2024, to US$57.5bil, with the decline particularly affecting works valued at more than US$10mil.
The four-day Art Basel fair, which closed last Sunday, featured more than 280 galleries presenting works by around 4,000 artists. Photo: AFP
“In the next six to 12 months, I don’t see any changes on the horizon,” said Hans Laenen, an art market specialist at insurer AXA XL.
In a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, “investors are turning very strongly to gold”, he told AFP.
In the art sector, behaviour is “more conservative” among both buyers and sellers, who prefer to wait before putting works on the market in the current climate, he continues.
“The number of transactions is increasing,” but in “lower price segments,” he noted.
According to the insurance firm Hiscox, the number of lots sold for less than US$50,000 increased by 20 percent in auction houses in 2024, while very highly priced works saw a sharp drop, indicating a change in collector behaviour.
New generation
According to Jean Gazancon, chief executive of art insurer Arte Generali, a younger generation of collectors is entering the market.
“We are insuring more and more 30-somethings for collections of 300,000, 500,000, or a million euros,” he noted.
“These are successful start-uppers, investment bankers, lawyers, or sometimes people who have inherited,” and they begin their collections “very young”, sometimes making “very radical” choices, he said.
A view of Ukrainian painter Sana Shahmuradova Tanska’s ‘Zhai-Liza (Angel), 2024’ at Gunia Nowik Gallery’s booth at Art Basel on June 17. Photo: AFP
UBS expects that trend to increase. According to its projections, an unprecedented wealth transfer will take place over the next 20 to 25 years with the general ageing of the population.
Globally, around US$83tril in assets will change hands, it says, meaning “there’s a whole new generation of collectors coming to the market with different buying patterns”, said Eric Landolt, global co-head of the family advisory, art and collecting department at UBS.
The four-day Art Basel fair, which closed last Sunday, featured more than 280 galleries presenting works by around 4,000 artists.
It is a must for collectors, who can buy everything from Pablo Picasso paintings to very recent works.
The Thaddaeus Ropac galleries notably offered a portrait of Pope Leo XIV by the Chinese-French artist Yan Pei-Ming.
It also highlights young artists, such as Joyce Joumaa, 27, who jointly won the 2025 Baloise Art Prize for her work focusing on the energy crisis in Lebanon. – AFP