Wealthy collectors spent an average of 32% less on art and antiques in 2023, according to the latest Art Basel and UBS survey of the world collectionreleased today. The report, authored by Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, compiles responses from 3,663 high-net-worth individuals from 14 regions around the world, all active in the art market, and reveals that their average spending fell by $532,985 in 2022 to $363,905 in 2023.
While millionaires’ wealth increased slightly after a decline in 2022, the report found that in 2024 their allocation to art as a percentage declined for the second year in a row, from a high of 24% in 2022. to 19 percent last year and to 15 percent in the first half of 2024.
McAndrew reports that the decline in average spending is primarily due to the purchasing behavior of millennials (defined as ages 28 to 43). They were spending a lot in 2022, but in 2023, they cut their average spending by more than half, from $864,940 to $395,000. By taking the median spending of all buyers, which eliminates outliers, the drop is much less steep, McAndrew notes – from $50,165 to $50,000 – because the reduction in spending was mostly seen at higher price points. higher. On a median basis, mainland Chinese shoppers (numbering 300) spent more than double that of any other region in 2023 and the first half of 2024.
Over the 18-month period, more than three-quarters of those surveyed said they had purchased a painting – the most popular medium – but there were signs that prints and works on paper, as well as emerging, new and female artists , benefit from this popularity. a more price-conscious customer base in a recalibrating market, writes McAndrew.
For the rest of the year, the survey finds the market trajectory is “not entirely clear, with mixed signals across different sectors.” There is, however, no evidence that the “brain to growth” at the top end will cease, given that “the continuing context of geopolitical tensions, trade fragmentation, higher long-term interest rates and other region-specific problems persist.” weigh on the sentiment and plans of buyers and sellers. The full report can be read at theartmarket.artbasel.com
Paula Cooper Gallery partnered with developers Brookfield Properties and WatermanClark to mount an exhibition by Claes Oldenburg and his longtime collaborator and wife, Coosje van Bruggen, in New York’s newly renovated Lever House. The exhibition, Oldenburg’s first major exhibition since his death in 2022, will include approximately 20 pieces of sculptures, drawings and prints in the publicly accessible lobby and outdoor spaces of the Midtown modernist office building. The exhibition, curated by Jacob King, runs from November 18 through fall 2025 with a majority of works for sale, ranging from $25,000 to $6 million.
Two of Oldenburg and Van Bruggen’s large sculptures — “The Architect’s Handkerchief” (1999) and “Red Planter (Mid-Scale)” (2001-2021) — will be placed in the outdoor plaza, while the Presentation inside will emphasize their consumer product. -works based on, in recognition of the building’s original owners in 1952, Lever Brothers (more widely known as Unilever). These include Oldenburg’s toothpaste sculpture “Tube Supported by its Contents” (1981). “This is an exciting project because themes of consumerism are very present in Claes and Coosje’s work,” says Paula Cooper Gallery Senior Associate Steve Henry.
Lever House is no stranger to art: its former owner, Aby Rosen, co-founder of real estate group RFR Holding, organized exhibitions and commissioned artwork for the building, which has since been the subject of of a $100 million redevelopment.
Additional EU customs procedures In place since Brexit, works by three artists that were expected on the stand of London’s Soho Revue gallery at Barcelona’s Swab art fair did not arrive in time for the VIP opening. “We did everything we could. Given the new legislation, I used one of the best companies to organize it, but it seems that everything has become much more complicated since Brexit,” says gallery founder India Rose James.
For the fair’s October 3 opening, in place of works by Hanne Peeraer, Anne Carney Raines and Alanna Hernandez, the gallery pinned up printed notices stating that, despite “heroic efforts to speed things up, it appears that the bureaucracy has other plans,” adding that the art was available on the gallery’s online viewing room.
The reviews were at least a talking point – “we met a lot of new collectors,” says James – and once the art arrived, she sold Peeraer’s works (around £1,000 each). “I’m sure that in time everything will work out, but for now my work in the art world is limited to logistics and postage.” She says she is still waiting for some of the Barcelona works to return to the UK, with the added customs bottleneck from the Frieze and Art Basel Paris fairs.
A new gallery dedicated to living female artists will open in London’s Shoreditch later this year. SLQS is named after its founder, Goldsmiths College graduate Sarah Le Quang Sang, who says there is a need to “educate collectors to think differently about the careers of female artists”. For example, she says, the art world tends to favor young people when it comes to seeking out emerging and exciting talent, “but women often start later or take a break (to have children ), so their resume doesn’t fit the mold. They are not always eligible, for example, for awards given to artists under 40.” Le Quang Sang, whose parents are French and Franco-Vietnamese, will also give visibility to Vietnamese artists like Hoa Dung Clerget and Duong Thuy Nguyen, for whom she is planning a first show.
Le Quang Sang previewed its gallery program at this month’s Minor Attractions and Women In Art Fair events, with works by Beverley Duckworth and a sound performance by Laima Leyton at the former, and a striking exhibition by Damaris Athene at WIAF (Athene will receive a solo (gallery exhibition next year, Le Quang Sang confirms.) She will open on Club Row, near Kate MacGarry, and says: ‘I’m starting a business in the worst economic times , but the gallery is well located and compact.”
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