The first rule of art collecting is love what you buy. The next rule is to understand what you are buying. Increasingly, investors see the art market as an important way to diversify their assets and potentially reap gains while also giving them enjoyment. Younger buyers – especially active in the UAE — are participating in the market in greater numbers and are expected to continue to do so with the shift in generational wealth.
The global art market this year has seen a resurgence, following record-setting high-end auction sales that started in late 2025. According to the Art Basel & UBS report, the art market returned to growth in 2025 after two years of decline though it remained uneven. Sales increased 4 per cent to near $59.6 billion, still below 2022 levels.
While much of the sales growth was at the high end, that could help lift other boats in the art world. Eye-popping sales in the millions of dollars get all the headlines, but new collectors can start dipping into the market for a few thousand dollars.
High end leads recovery
“First, the high end of the market started leading the recovery,” says art advisor Richard Cappellazzo, director with Art Intelligence Global, a global advisory firm based in New York and Hong Kong. “A number of large and important estates came to market in late 2025, particularly in the November sales in New York.”
One of those was the collection of the late Leonard Lauder, a major collector and Estee Lauder heir. The star of the collection was Gustav Klimt’s 1914-1916 Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, depicting the daughter of the artist’s patrons. The painting sold at Sotheby’s for $236.4 million, double the Viennese artist’s previous auction record. It also was the highest price ever for any piece of modern art at auction. “That type of fire power and what we will sometimes call fireworks at the top end of the market — the bidding competition for trophy lots — that helped lead the greater market out of the softer moments of 2024 and the first half of 2025,” said Cappellazzo.
There has been good growth in the $10 million and above category, but that also results in a trickledown effect to other parts of the market. “It reassures collectors who participate in the higher medium tier and even the lower price threshold that there’s plenty of capital in the art market, and there is liquidity and depth of trading,” said Cappellazzo.
The high-profile sales also lure more entrants off the sidelines for pieces with estimated medium price points between $1.5 million and $3 million. “That’s what we’ve seen in a very healthy way in the last six months,” he said.
The spring 2026 season continued to see record-setting sales. Constantin Brâncuși’s bust Danaïde, from the collection of the late US publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse, fetched a record $107.6 million at Christie’s in New York in May. Another work from the Newhouse collection, Jackson Pollack’s Number 7A 1948, sold for a record $181.2 million at Christie’s, well above the artist’s prior auction record of $61.2 million.
By spring, there was a sense of apprehension going into the auction season in London and New York because of uncertainty about the economy and the impact of the Iran war.
But the auctions went very well. “We had that ‘aha’ sigh of relief in a wonderful way when the results came in because London was one of the strongest marquee weeks of art sales that we had. It was up 50 per cent from last year,” said Meagan Kelly Horsman, Christie’s managing director of UAE and director, president EMEA’s Office.
Younger buyers emerge
Horsman said the art market is evolving, and clients are starting earlier to manage collections. A younger cohort is buying, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the UAE, where 44 per cent of Christie’s clients are millennials or younger, compared to 28 per cent for Christie’s globally. “What we really see here is young, culturally engaged affluent people with a global outlook, and their buying trends really reflect that,” she said. They spend a lot on luxury items, “but it’s also impressionism. It’s contemporary art. It’s also art from Asia. I would say our clients here are really collecting interestingly — and are passion-led — and with a sense of fun too.”
The sales of Middle Eastern artists’ works are also strong and are also becoming increasingly popular outside of the region, she notes.
Dunja Gottweis, director of the now 20-year-old annual Art Dubai, said there is growing interest in art collecting in the UAE, evident in the record 25,000 attendees at this year’s fair. “We saw exceptional work from long-established regional artists alongside a strong cohort of emerging UAE-based talent. Roudhah Al Mazrouei’s new work for example, presented by Taymour Grahne Projects, sold out within hours of opening alongside strong representations of modern Arab art and international artists introducing their work to the region,” she told KT LUXE.
The UAE collector base is growing. “Across the UAE, we’re seeing deeper engagement from a broadening base of regional and international collectors, institutions and foundations, and a gallery scene that’s grown more sophisticated and confident with each edition,” she added.
Christie’s Horsman said first-time bidders for art in Dubai end up three out of four times placing their next bids in markets like New York, London, or Hong Kong.
In 2025, 76 per cent of global art sales were made in the US, UK, and China, according to the Art Basel & UBS report. The US was the leading art market, with 44 per cent of global sales. The UK followed with an 18 per cent share, while China was third with 14 per cent.
Cappellazzo also expects to see more younger buyers emerge. His firm advises collectors at all stages of the investing cycle. That includes new buyers acquiring their first pieces; mid-stage collectors reshaping collections and older collectors working on legacy planning. “There’s, of course, the concept that’s been outlined by many – the great wealth transfer and that will be the inheritance of mainly millennials and some Gen-Xers,” he said. “That will generate both new demand and new supply within the art market as major collections continue to come online.”
Single owner trend
Increasingly, single owner collection sales are becoming an important part of the auction market. “The trend is going to continue. At the same time, the liquidity events from inheritance and self-made wealth in the next five to 10 years should also create new buyers and fresh capital,” Cappellazzo said.
Christie’s recent auction of South Asian art in London came from an unnamed single owner’s collection. The “Sublime Shadows” collection included works from Indian artist Ganesh Pyne. His painting The Fisherman, 1979, sold for £3.8 million, a world auction record for the artist and nearly 10 times the high estimate. The same auction included some of his works at much lower price points. Pyne’s drawing, The Rider, sold for £4,826.
Single owner collections can have a special appeal. “A single owner, a sense of provenance, a collector’s eye — it’s not just in art. You see it in jewellery and watches. People really engage with storytelling and understand and appreciate the joy of collecting and what that can look like,” Horsman said.
Starting a collection
Art collecting is not just a passion. It has become a much more serious way to allocate investing capital. Unlike in the past, Cappellazzo said people are less likely to take profits from a buoyant stock market to buy art. “They’re looking at their whole portfolio and thinking in a more sophisticated fashion about asset allocation,” he said.
Only about a third of art sales are public, he adds. Collectors can learn about the market at auction houses, at galleries and fairs, like Art Dubai, held every spring in the UAE.
Collectors who are just starting out also do not need to spend millions of dollars.
“The entry point can be $5,000 or $10,000 if you’re looking at a young emerging artist,” said Cappellazzo, who specialises in 20th century and contemporary art. He adds that a historical piece would be more expensive, starting at $50,000 to $100,000. An example from that range, for instance, could be a work on paper by an artist such as Willem de Kooning.
While it can be exciting to find new artists, some works may not find ready buyers on resale. Horsman said collectors need to do their homework. “I immediately ask if I ever had to sell everything, could I sell it easily? These are important questions to ask when you are looking at how you spend your money and you look after sort of a large group of diversified assets,” she said.
There’s the risk you may not be able to sell. “You might be stuck with it for a long time, so you really should enjoy it,” she said. “But if you love it, and it adds value to your life and your experience on earth, it’s 100 per cent worth the money.”
Ted Kaplan is a New York estate, real estate and art law attorney, who has worked with art sales for five decades. He said collectors need to be careful and not just buy works that are being heavily touted. “There are a lot of people who want to invest in up-and-coming artists,” he said. “It’s a very fickle market as to who makes it, and who stays at the top of the market.”
Kaplan said collectors should seek advice and study the artist and piece before they buy. Provenance, or documented history of ownership, is very important. Not every work by a famous artist may garner what its owner expects. “The impressionists didn’t always have good days,” he said.
Whether a new or experienced collector, there are always risks when buying art. A painting may not stand the test of time or the market for it may not be liquid. “Everybody just says love what you buy because nobody wants to feel part of a wrong decision that you regret later,” Horsman said. “When I buy a work of art, it’s because it stops me in my tracks. Maybe it makes me laugh. Maybe it makes me reflective. Often, it makes me laugh.”
Source: Khaleej Times