UBS and Art Basel Collectors’ Survey Shows Spending Down, Sales Up

The Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2024, this year’s edition of an annual report jointly published since 2014 by investment bank UBS and art-fair giant Art Basel, reveals wealthy art buyers to be spending less and buying more than they did last year.The survey’s author, Clare McAndrew, and staff queried more than 3,600 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and learned that high-end purchases were losing ground to less-expensive works as collectors tightened their purse strings, seeking value in volume.

Public sales at the world’s major auction houses—Bonhams, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—sank 26 percent in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, remaining below their 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Global imports in art and antiques, however, increased for the third consecutive year in 2023, with regions such as Hong Kong driving demand.

The average expenditure slid roughly 32 percent, to about $363,905, as buyers eschewed pricey works amid what the report described as “an ongoing backdrop of high interest rates, persistent geopolitical tensions and trade fragmentation that weigh on the sentiments of buyers and sellers alike,” signaling a shift from the frenzied buying that attended the lifting of pandemic restrictions, as collectors swarmed fairs and auctions.

Median spending, on the other hand, remained comparatively stable, falling only slightly between 2022 and 2023, from $50,165 to $50,000; median spending in the first half of 2024 was $25,555, suggesting continued stability. Contributing significantly to the overall decline, millennial spending dropped precipitously in 2023—by 50 percent, to an average of $395,000—after surging in 2022, a year when HNWIs in this age bracket were targeting high-priced works. Average Gen X spending crept up by 3 percent in 2023, with collectors of this generation spending an average of $578,000, significantly more than their younger counterparts.

“Positive economic forecasts for 2025 bolster the art market‘s prospects,” said UBS Art Board chair Christl Novakovic in a statement. “We anticipate continued art enthusiasm, driven by both seasoned collectors and new entrants to the market. This is supported by early indicators of market activity, including sustained spending in Mainland China, growing interest in new and emerging artists, and consistent gallery and art fair attendance.”