The largest intergenerational transfer of wealth is now under way. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion will be transferred between generations in the United States through 2048, with $105 trillion expected to pass to heirs and $18 trillion to charity. More than half of the total, approximately $62 trillion, is expected to come from households currently classified as high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth, representing just 2% of U.S. households.
Art represents only a fraction of that wealth, but a significant one. The 2025 Deloitte Private and ArtTactic Art & Finance Report estimates that approximately $992 billion in art and collectibles is expected to change hands over the next decade as part of the broader transfer of wealth. The figure is an estimate of assets transferred, not a forecast of auction sales or other art entering the public market.
The pace of the handover
The transfer will not occur in a single wave. Cerulli estimates that $54 trillion of the projected $124 trillion will first pass between spouses, with more than 95% of those transfers expected to go to women. Nearly $40 trillion is projected to transfer to widowed women in the Baby Boomer and older generations before wealth is subsequently passed to younger generations or to charity.
Art follows a similarly gradual path. In the 2025 Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, 84% of the 3,100 high-net-worth collectors surveyed across 10 markets reported having inherited artworks, which accounted for almost 30% of the works they owned. Yet inheritance does not necessarily lead to a sale. Almost 90% of Gen Z collectors who had inherited works said they had kept them, while around 80% of collectors surveyed said they intended to pass their collections to children or partners.
This distinction is important. The estimated $992 billion in art and collectibles expected to change hands should not be understood as $992 billion of future auction supply. Art transferred through estates may be retained within families, donated to institutions or charities, placed with another owner privately, or sold. The eventual market supply will depend on those decisions, as well as on estate planning, taxation and broader economic conditions.
When collections reach the market
When significant collections are sold, the concentration of quality and provenance can make them among the most consequential sources of supply at the top end of the market.
The 2026 auction season provided two notable examples. In May, Christie’s sold the private collection of S.I. Newhouse for $630.825 million in New York. Combined with three earlier sales of works from Newhouse’s collection, the total reached approximately $1.05 billion, making it the second-highest-value collection ever sold at auction, behind the Paul G. Allen Collection.
In June, Sotheby’s sold the Lewis Collection in London for approximately $392.6 million, establishing the highest total for a single-owner collection auctioned in Europe. Together, such sales illustrate how individual estates and long-established collections can introduce substantial quantities of important works to the market at once.
The significance of these sales extends beyond their headline totals. Collections assembled over decades can bring together works with established histories of ownership, exhibition and scholarship, creating a level of context and documentation that is particularly important to buyers at the highest levels of the market.
A younger generation of buyers
The supply created by wealth transfer is developing alongside a new generation of collectors.
Bank of America’s 2024 Study of Wealthy Americans found that 83% of Millennials and Gen Z respondents either owned or were interested in owning an art collection, compared with 40% of wealthy Americans overall.
The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025 points to a similar generational shift in collecting behavior. High-net-worth collectors allocated an average of 20% of their wealth to art in 2025, up from 15% in 2024. Among Gen Z collectors, the reported allocation was 26%. Younger collectors are also engaging across a wider range of mediums: Millennials showed the highest participation in photography, prints and works on paper, while Gen Z had the highest participation rates in digital art and film and video.
The result is a market in which the next generation is not simply inheriting existing collections. It is developing its own collecting priorities, often across categories that previous generations treated more separately.
The market that follows
The relationship between wealth transfer and art-market supply is therefore more complex than the headline numbers suggest. Wealth is moving now, while much of the art attached to that wealth may remain within families for years or decades. At the same time, younger collectors are entering the market with substantial purchasing power and a broader appetite across mediums and collecting categories.
The result may be a gradual deepening of the market rather than a single wave of inherited art coming to auction. Some works will remain in collections. Others will be donated or sold privately. A smaller but potentially significant portion will enter the public market, where established provenance, rarity and condition may influence how strongly a work performs.
What is certain is the scale of the transition. Over the next two decades, ownership of substantial private wealth will move increasingly toward younger generations, and art will move with it. The important question for the market is not simply how much art changes hands, but where it goes, who assumes responsibility for it, and which works ultimately return to market.
For collectors and their advisors, this makes preparation increasingly important. While the timing of individual sales cannot be predicted, the ability to evaluate a work, secure its documentation, understand its market position, and make informed decisions about acquisition or disposition can and should be developed well in advance.
Ithaca provides advisory services to collectors across the acquisition, development, and intergenerational stewardship of art collections. To discuss a work or a collection, contact an Ithaca advisor. Every conversation is handled privately.
