UK art sales reached £8 billion in 2025, but growth has trailed the US since 2009

The United Kingdom remained the world's second-largest art market by sales value in 2025, with sales of £8 billion. Since the market's low point in 2009, though, UK sales have risen 17%, while US sales have grown 114%.

Those figures come from a 30th anniversary report by the British Art Market Federation (BAMF), the trade body for the sector. The research was carried out by Arts Economics, a research firm, and the report was launched at a reception at Christie's in London on 27 October. Christie's is one of the large auction houses, which sell art to the highest bidder in public sales.

The report puts the UK's sales at £2.6 billion in 1996. It says the UK holds more than half of Europe's art market. Global sales have grown 51% since 2009, according to the same report.

Public auction sales in the UK rose 8% to £2.1 billion. Much of the wider trade, though, is made up of smaller firms. Of UK art businesses, 89% reported annual sales below £1 million, and 65% of businesses registered as employers are based outside London.

BAMF chairman Thomas Christopherson said that over-complicated and excessive regulation hits small and micro businesses hardest. He described those firms as the backbone of the UK art market.

Trade flows have also shifted. Imports of art and antiques fell 45%, from £4.1 billion in 2015 to £2.2 billion in 2025. Exports fell 48% over the same decade, from £6 billion to £3.1 billion. The United States took 72% of UK art exports in 2000 and 35% in 2025, but it is still the largest single destination.

The sector supports an estimated 53,290 jobs across 8,780 businesses, according to the report, and generated £1.5 billion in tax revenue in 2025. It also underpins the livelihoods of an estimated 62,800 visual artists.

A separate study, the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, puts the wider picture in global terms. It found that the United States, the UK and China together made up 76% of the global art market. The US remained the largest market in the world. The UK held a steady 18% share, while China's share fell by 1% to 14%.

That report also found that UK dealers' annual turnover fell 1%, the third year in a row that values have dropped. The number of UK commercial galleries and antique-dealing companies with taxable employees fell 3% in 2025, its second year of decline.

For the people who crate, insure and sell the work, the numbers come down to the size of the businesses. Most firms are small, and most sit outside the capital. Whether the next report shows the same pattern will depend on the figures for the years ahead.