Wealthy millennials boosting the art market
08/03/2019 06:00
By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
ZURICH, March 8 (Reuters) - The global art market
experienced another uptick in 2018, helped by an increase in the
spending power of millennials, a report published by UBS and Art
Basel said on Friday.
A survey of wealthy individuals conducted by UBS and art
economist Clare McAndrew for the report found millennials were
buying art more actively and frequently taking to the internet
to do so. It found that more of them were willing to shell out
big money on art than their older peers.
They also provided a boost for female artists.
"For a generation that might never own a car, their appetite
for buying art is encouraging," UBS Group Chief Marketing
Officer Johan Jervøe told Reuters.
"It may be a reflection of the unique and often experiential
qualities of art and collectibles as long-term assets."
Overall sales in the art market grew 7 percent to $67.4
billion in 2018, according to UBS and Art Basel's third annual
art market report.
People between 22 and 37 years of age made up nearly half of
the wealthy art buyers who regularly spent $1 million or more on
an artwork over the past two years, the survey found, despite
representing just over a third of the high-net-worth individuals
surveyed.
The results of the survey, which was conducted in Britain,
Germany, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, offered a silver lining
for the art world as geopolitical and economic worries have
weighed on overall sentiment.
As millennials grow into greater wealth, and benefit from a
generational shift in wealth inherited from aging parents, their
wealth could reach $24 trillion by 2020, according to Deloitte.
Millennials' spending habits could provide significant
potential for both online sales and art's squeezed middle,
Jervøe said, benefiting the industry's overall health.
This younger generation of collectors with over $1 million
in household assets to spend or invest helped buoy the digital
art marketplace to $6 billion sales last year.
And a majority of them also took to photo-sharing social
media platform Instagram to source and buy art.
Between 2016 and 2018, 93 percent of the millennials made
purchases online, spending $106,930 on average, while the
slightly older Generation X - between 38 and 52 years of age
-spent around half a million dollars on an average web purchase,
but did so with less frequency.
(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
((brenna.neghaiwi@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 77 35;))