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Wealthy collectors pull back on art spending

Oct 29, 2024, 6:43am EDT
An employee poses for a photo in front of “05.06.80-Triptyque” by artist Zao Wou-Ki during the inaugural sale at Christie’s new Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong
Tyrone Siu/File Photo/Reuters
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The News

The wealthiest collectors are spending less on art, new analysis showed.

The shift, outlined in a recent survey of high net-worth individuals by Art Basel and UBS, was driven in large part by millennial collectors, whose average spend on art fell from nearly $865,000 in 2022 to $395,000 last year, Artnet reported.

That may be a short-lived trend, however, because huge sums are set to be transferred from older generations of collectors to their children in the next two decades, the report noted, with inherited wealth set to top self-made wealth among billionaires.

This growing inequality in the top tier of potential art buyers creates a “narrow market… susceptible to certain risks and limitations,” the report’s author said.

A chart showing the average expenditure per collector on fine art, decorative art, and antiques by generation.
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