Our View on Art: How Private Collectors Buy Today

Updated 12 October 2026

Private collectors today buy most of their art from galleries and dealers, a good part of it at art fairs, and the rest at public auction or privately, either through an auction house's private sales or directly from another collector. In 2025 the global art market reached an estimated 59.6 billion US dollars, 4 per cent more than a year earlier but still below its 2022 peak, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2026. Of the 3,100 high-net-worth collectors questioned for the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2026, 87 per cent had bought through a dealer in the past year, 75 per cent directly and 62 per cent at an art fair.

We have been working closely with artists, galleries and collectors over the years and are glad to assist our clients with all kinds of needs and wishes in and around the art market. When we first wrote about art in January 2019, we described skyrocketing prices, and many of the requests reaching us were to find works by Picasso, Lichtenstein and Warhol. The market has changed since then, and so has the case for investing in art, but our view of how to buy has not.

The art market in 2025 in figures

The art market grew again in 2025, though not evenly. Galleries and dealers sold an estimated 34.8 billion US dollars of art, 2 per cent more than in 2024, and public auctions 20.7 billion, an increase of 9 per cent; private sales arranged by the auction houses came to just under 4.2 billion. At auction the growth was concentrated at the top: sales above 10 million US dollars rose by 30 per cent, while sales below 50,000 US dollars fell by 2 per cent in both value and volume.

The United States remained the largest market with 44 per cent of sales by value, ahead of the United Kingdom with 18 per cent, China with 14 per cent, a point less than in 2024, and France with 8 per cent, while sales in Switzerland grew by 13 per cent. Online sales fell to 9.2 billion US dollars, their lowest level since 2019, and art fairs accounted for 35 per cent of dealers' sales.

The 2026 survey, written by Arts Economics, questioned collectors in ten markets through the first half of 2026; unlike the 2025 edition, it did not include Switzerland. Average fine art spending across the sample rose to 124,265 US dollars in 2025, 13 per cent more than in 2024, but spending was concentrated at lower levels: in the first half of 2026, 77 per cent of collectors spent less than 50,000 US dollars in total on fine art, and 84 per cent less than 100,000. Only 1 per cent bought a work priced above 1 million US dollars in 2025 and the first half of 2026. Most collect privately: 64 per cent preferred to keep their ownership of art within their household or a closed circle.

Which art fairs to plan for in 2026 and 2027

Art fairs bring many galleries into one place for a few days: Art Basel Miami Beach alone lists 272 exhibitors for its December 2026 edition, and the collectors in the 2026 survey expected to attend an average of 44 events in 2026, slightly fewer than the 46 of 2025. Art Basel lists these dates in its announcements for Miami Beach 2026 and Qatar 2027:

At a fair like Art Basel the significant pieces are placed before the doors open, so privileged access means being in that conversation, not walking the aisles on the first public day. When a fair is part of a longer trip, we arrange flights, ground transport, accommodation and security as one mandate, as we do for events.

What to check before you buy

Before a price is agreed, a buyer should know where a work comes from, who owns it and what condition it is in. Buying is the visible part; expert opinion, certification and moving the work safely across borders is where an acquisition is actually won or lost.

Provenance is the documented history of a work: its previous owners, sales, exhibitions and publications. Any gap in that history needs an explanation before money changes hands. An independent expert opinion and a condition report belong in the file, and so does a check against databases of stolen art: INTERPOL's Stolen Works of Art Database holds almost 57,000 items, anyone can apply for access, and authorised users can check an object in real time, including by image. When we arrange expert opinions for a client, we use independent specialists, so the opinion is not ours to sell.

What an auction adds to the price

At auction a buyer's premium is added to the hammer price, on a scale each house sets itself. At Sotheby's it falls in steps as the hammer price rises:

These rates exclude local taxes and any artist's resale right. A work knocked down at 1 million US dollars in New York therefore costs 1.28 million before tax, and it has to sell for more than that before its owner sees any gain. When we buy or sell fine art for a client, we do so either through our network of experts, dealers and collectors or through auction houses around the world.

Storing art: what a freeport is

A freeport, in Swiss terms a Zollfreilager, is a customs warehouse for the intermediate storage of goods in transit, free of customs duty and tax. According to the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, Swiss freeports are run by warehouse companies, and cultural property placed in them has to be declared on form 11.95.

Under the Swiss Cultural Property Transfer Act, in force since 1 June 2005, placing cultural property in a customs warehouse, a freeport included, counts as an import, and under customs law the warehouse keeper has to keep an inventory record of all cultural property stored, as the Federal Office of Culture sets out. In Geneva the freeport is operated by Ports Francs et Entrepôts de Genève SA; in 2014, according to a bill before the cantonal parliament, the Canton of Geneva held 6,500 of its 7,500 shares, 87 per cent of the capital, with the rest in private hands.

We handle insured transport and storage as part of the mandate. A freeport has its place for works in transit, but in the end you should be able to enjoy a painting rather than lock it away in a safe.

Is art a good investment?

Art can hold its value and sometimes gain, but the long-run figures do not support treating it as a dependable return. Knight Frank's luxury investment index, published in The Wealth Report 2026, shows how differently the segments have moved:

Over ten years only European Old Masters show a gain, and a small one. After contracting since 2022, combined fine art sales at the major auction houses rose by 11 per cent in 2025, Knight Frank reports.

In our view, the decision to buy a work of art should rest primarily on taste and preference, not on what is in style today or whose auction prices are rising. There is a monumental difference between buying art for a private collection and investing in art for a return on your money. One has everything to do with how you feel about a work, the other nothing at all. For anyone starting an art collection, that means buying what you would want to live with, from people you trust, with the paperwork in order.

Whichever of the two is on your mind, the team at Veltracon Lifestyle is at your service to help you navigate the art market and to find what you desire. We can advise without selling anything, because we are not a gallery and do not hold stock. How art compares with watches, handbags and cars as a store of value is the subject of Investing in Luxury and Luxury as an Asset Class.

First published on 23 January 2019.