Wealthy female collectors are increasingly investing in art while spending on digital art has plummeted, a new study reveals.
Currently, art collectors are showing restraint in their expenditures. However, affluent women exhibited a more generous spending behavior on artworks and antiques than men in the first half of 2023. This follows a trend observed over the past two years, as highlighted in the new «Survey of Global Collecting» study conducted by Art Basel and Swiss bank UBS.
During this period, female collectors spent $72,500 (median value), whereas men spent only $59,400. Although men recorded higher average expenditures, some extravagant collectors, according to the study authors, inflated the values—twice as many men as women spent one million dollars in each period. Meanwhile, women’s expenditures continue to rise and have already surpassed the levels of 2022.
Millionaires are Holding Back
Despite the increase in the percentage of High-Net-Worth-Individuals (HNWIs) collectors who acquired artworks worth more than one million dollars, rising from 4 percent in the previous year to 9 percent in the first half of 2023, it remains below the 2021 value and those of previous years. This suggests that buyers have become more cautious, and the upper segment is thinning out after the significant surge during the pandemic.
Furthermore, affluent individuals are investing less money in their art collections compared to the previous year: in 2023, they will invest an average of 19 percent of their wealth in art collections, compared to 24 percent in 2022.
Auction Houses Facing Declines
The lower percentage could be attributed to fewer collectors with a wealth of 10 million dollars or more being surveyed in this year’s report (39 percent compared to 57 percent the previous year). According to the survey, almost 40 percent of very wealthy individuals invest 30 percent or more in art.
Total revenues of major auction houses such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips, and Bonhams have declined by approximately 16 percent in the first half of this year.
Collapse in Digital Artworks
Paintings accounted for the majority of expenditures by HNW collectors at 58 percent. In contrast, digital artworks represented only 3 percent of total expenditures. Their share in HNW collections decreased from 15 percent in the previous year to 8 percent.
This correlates with sales on Ethereum-based NFT platforms, as stated in the report. These sales reached their lowest point since January 2021 by mid-2023, with the number of individual buyers dropping from 40,000 to under 2,000.
New Buyer Groups Taking Over
The age group of top collectors has also shifted – while millennials made the highest expenditures in most art categories in 2022, in the first half of this year, it was Gen X and Baby Boomers who made the highest expenditures in high-value segments such as paintings.
The study also shows that a significant portion of the 2,828 surveyed collectors (77 percent) is optimistic about the development in the next six months. More than half of the collectors (54 percent) plan to buy artworks next year.
Comprehensive Analysis
The report, analyzing global art collecting trends in 2023, is based on data collected by Arts Economics. Participants included active collectors with investable assets of at least one million dollars, who spent at least $10,000 in 2021 and 2022 and at least $5,000 in the first half of this year on art and antiques.