The art market is in the early stages of a generational shift that is likely to shape it for decades. As wealth passes to younger collectors, long-held assumptions about who buys art, what they value and how they acquire it are beginning to change. Millennials and Gen Z are collecting across a wider range of media, discovering artists through more varied channels and showing less deference to the traditional hierarchies of the market. The significance of this shift extends beyond demographics. It is changing the routes through which collectors encounter art, the categories they collect and the relationships through which collections are built.
Evidence of that shift runs through the 2025 Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, which examined the activity of high-net-worth collectors across ten major markets. Millennials and Gen Z together accounted for roughly three-quarters of those surveyed. Younger collectors were strongly represented in the study, and its findings offer a detailed picture of how the priorities of the next generation are taking shape.
A Changing Collector Base
The change is visible in both spending and allocation. Gen Z respondents allocated an average of 26% of their wealth to art, compared with an average of 20% across all high-net-worth collectors surveyed. High-net-worth millennials spent an average of $523,000 on art and antiques in 2024. Boomers remained the highest-spending generation, at roughly $993,000 on average, though that balance is likely to evolve as wealth passes from one generation to the next over the coming decades.
The headline figures can be misleading if read in isolation. Average expenditure among the high-net-worth collectors surveyed was $438,990 in 2024, but the median was far lower, at $24,000. The disparity is an important reminder that the market extends far beyond the seven-figure transactions that dominate auction headlines. Significant collecting takes place across a much broader range of price points.
New Habits, New Media
The more significant change may lie less in how much younger collectors spend than in how they discover and acquire art. Galleries and dealers remain the preferred route to acquisition, but increasingly operate alongside other channels. Among those who purchased from dealers, 51% had bought at least one work through Instagram without seeing it in person, up from 41% in 2023. Direct acquisition from artists has expanded sharply as well: 63% had purchased at least one work directly from an artist, compared with 27% in 2023.
The appetite for discovery extends across the collector base. Sixty-six percent of the high-net-worth collectors surveyed acquired work by an artist they had recently discovered, an eight-point rise year on year. Younger collectors nevertheless showed distinctive preferences across media, with Gen Z the most active in digital, film and video art, and millennials the most active buyers of prints, photography and works on paper.
For all the attention given to online collecting, physical channels remain central to the market. Online sales fell to an estimated $9.2 billion in 2025, their lowest level since 2019, while art fairs accounted for 35% of dealer sales, up from 31% the year before. Galleries and dealers also remained the preferred purchasing channel among the high-net-worth collectors surveyed. Digital discovery, in other words, has widened the routes into the market without replacing its established institutions.
What the Shift Means for Collectors
For collectors entering the market now, access has broadened considerably. Artists can be discovered through more channels, information is more readily available, and the path from first encounter to acquisition is no longer confined to a single route through the market. What has not changed is what ultimately makes a collection matter: the quality of each work, its condition and provenance, and the judgment behind the decision to acquire it.
Photography and fine-art editions are particularly relevant within this shift. They offer collectors access to significant works by major artists at price points often well below those commanded by painting or sculpture. For new and younger collectors, this creates an unusual opportunity to acquire works with established art-historical significance at a comparatively accessible level of the market.
Ithaca Gallery advises private collectors on significant 20th and 21st-century fine art and photography, with expertise spanning acquisitions, private sales and valuations. We work with collectors at every stage, from a first considered acquisition to the development of an established collection. All inquiries are handled privately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the new art collectors?
Millennial and Gen Z collectors are assuming a greater presence in the market and developing new habits around discovery and acquisition. In the 2025 Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, the two generations together accounted for roughly three-quarters of the high-net-worth collectors surveyed.
How are younger collectors buying art?
Galleries and dealers remain central, but younger collectors increasingly move between channels. A work may be discovered through social media, researched online, seen at a fair or auction, and finally acquired through a gallery, an advisor or the artist directly.
What are younger collectors buying?
Their interests span a broad range of media. In the 2025 survey, Gen Z recorded the highest participation in digital, film and video art, while millennials were the most active buyers of prints, photography and works on paper.
Do you need to be wealthy to start collecting?
No. While the highest auction results attract the most attention, collecting takes place across a much wider range of price points. Photography and fine-art editions in particular offer access to significant artists and established categories at prices that can sit well below those of unique works.
Why is photography attractive to new collectors?
Photography combines the standing of a major twentieth-century art form with a market that spans a broad range of price points. Because value turns on print date, edition, provenance and condition, knowledge and discernment play a decisive role in identifying the most significant works.
