The twentysomethings outspending everyone on art
The art market's biggest spenders are in their twenties.
Collectors aged 20 to 29 reported the highest average spending on fine art in 2025 and in the first half of 2026, according to findings published on 8 October 2026 from the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting. The Art Newspaper
They spent an average of US$347,460 on art in 2025, up 19% on the previous year. That is more than twice the average spent by any older generation in the survey. Their pace quickened this year. Average spending by this group in the first six months of 2026 alone passed their total for all of 2025.
The top end is striking. In the first half of 2026, 13% of these younger collectors said they had spent more than US$1 million on fine art. Across all ages, the figure was 3%.
Only 1% of all collectors surveyed bought a single work priced above US$1 million in 2025 and the first half of 2026. This youngest group accounted for nearly half of those buyers.
The survey, produced by Arts Economics in Oxford and written by economist Clare McAndrew for Art Basel, the fair organiser based in Basel, Switzerland, and UBS, the bank headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, polled 3,100 high-net-worth individuals. That means people with at least US$1 million in personal wealth, not counting their homes or stakes in private businesses.
Gen Z, defined here as ages 20 to 29, made up 9% of the sample. That is 279 people.
Family money looms large in their answers. About 37% said their wealth came mainly from family-related sources, compared with 15% of respondents overall. About 40% said family encouragement drew them into collecting, against 28% overall.
Across the whole sample, average fine-art spending was US$124,265 in 2025, up 13% from 2024. The survey also found more buyers skipping galleries and auction houses to buy directly from artists.
What makes this stand out for anyone who follows pop culture is the speed. A small group of young, wealthy buyers is moving fast, spending early and paying top prices while still in their twenties. For fans, this means the next wave of taste is already being bought and hung.
