Art Basel and UBS on 10 April released the 2025 edition of their annual art market , which analyses the state of the global art market and segments such as galleries, auction houses and art fairs. In 2024, global art market sales were estimated at $57.5bn, . In 2022, the .
“Most developed economies achieved a soft landing in 2024, and from an economic perspective the outlook should be one of continuity,” commented UBS Global Wealth Management’s chief economist Paul Donovan. “However, politics introduce uncertainty, with the shift toward economic nationalism bringing trade protectionism, restrictions on labour movement and limits on capital flows. Amidst the great wealth transfer and shifts in the global economic landscape, we are witnessing a turning point in the art market. Despite the adjustment in global sales values, transactions remain high, with positive signs from the presence of new buyers.”
Here are a few takeaways from the report.
Top-selling Old Masters at auction
“Old Master” is a term used to refer to painters and works before 1800. The report noted that the top-selling Old Masters work at auction in 2024 was the French painter Jean Siméon Chardin’s “Le Melon Entamé” (1760), sold at Christie’s in Paris on 12 June 2024 for $28.9m. Next came Titian’s “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” (c. 1508), which sold at Christie’s in London for $22.3m. There were five Chinese Old Masters in the top ten, including Yuan Dynasty painter and calligrapher Zhao Mengfu’s “Three Scrolls,” which sold for $12.7m at China Guardian in Beijing. The Italian artist Sandro Botticelli also made the top ten, with “The Virgin and Child Enthroned” (c. 1470) sold for $12.7m at Sotheby’s in London on 4 December 2024.
“Sales in the wider Old Masters sector have seen significant variation over the last 10 years,” said the report. “Values fell by 16% during the pandemic in 2020 to $970m, but recovered again to $1.1bn in 2021, driven by the sale of a small number of very highly priced lots. The difficult context in the Chinese market in 2022 with continued lockdowns and auction cancellations meant sales fell to just over $1bn but picked up again in 2023 as the market reopened, increasing by 18% to $1.2bn,” said the report. “However, sales dropped to a 15-year low in 2024, falling by 25% year-on-year to $803m, despite a rise of 7% in the number of lots sold.” This emphasises how much the “high end” of the market can influence values, regardless of the activity happening elsewhere.
Sales down, transactions up
At $57.5bn, sales in the global art market in 2024 were at their lowest level since 2020 ($50.3bn), when the covid pandemic began. The main reason for the slowdown in growth is the “thinning out” of the high end of the art market. “Whilst the market has declined in value for two years, one of the most positive developments has been the growth of sales at the lower and more affordable prices,” explained Clare McAndrew, founder of Art Economics, the research and consulting firm that conducted the analysis.
US still leads but sees decline in sales; France remains largest European market
After a strong post-pandemic recovery, sales in the US--the biggest art market worldwide--dropped by 9% to reach $24.8bn in 2024, thanks partly to political uncertainty. “This was its second year of falling values following a 10% decrease in 2023, but remained 18% above the pandemic-induced low of 2020,” pointed out the report.
The UK is back in second place (after losing the position to China in 2023). Sales decreased by 5% to reach $10.4bn. China is now in third place, having experienced a 31% decline in art market sales to reach $8.4bn.
France, with $4.2bn in sales in 2024 (a 10% decrease compared to the year before), is the largest European art market and the fourth-largest worldwide. EU sales in total came to $8.3bn.
New buyers on the rise
Despite the slowdown in global art sales, transactions rose by 3% to reach 40.5m in 2024. “The number of artworks that sold for prices in the sub-$50,000 range has expanded and there has been evidence of success by both dealers and auction houses in reaching new buyers, giving the market a broader and more diversified base for sales,” said McAndrew. “Continuing to expand the market to wider audiences, including through the relatively unencumbered exchange of art across borders, will remain essential to its long-run growth.”
Looking back a few years, the volume of transactions fell by 23% to 31.4m during the pandemic in 2020. But this figure increased by 19% in 2021, by 1% in 2022 and by 4% in 2023 to reach 39.4m. “The persistent growth in both 2023 and 2024 reflected greater activity in the lower-priced, more affordable segments for both dealers and auction houses, which continued to gain momentum as price records and high-end sales slowed. The four-year period of post-pandemic growth in volumes has also been driven by the acceleration in the digitisation of the market, with the expansion of online sales allowing the market to increase the volume of transactions,” noted the report.
Dealers who were surveyed for the study reported that almost half (44%) of their buyers were new to their business in 2024. “The share of sales to new buyers also increased to 38%, up by five percentage points from 2023. The share of new buyers was highest for the smallest dealers (50%), highlighting the importance of smaller galleries in expanding the market to a wider audience,” said the report.
Find the full Art Market Report 2025 .