Clare McAndrew, the arts economist who authored the Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2026, examined the habits of 3,100 high-net-worth collectors across 10 markets. Among them, Gen Z, defined in the survey as people aged 20 to 29, represented 9% of respondents.
They nevertheless accounted for nearly half of collectors who bought artwork priced above $1 million in 2025 and the first half of 2026. Gen Z’s oldest members are just 29.
The survey found that Gen Z outspent every older generation on fine art over that period, spending more than twice as much as older collectors. Their average fine-art spending rose 19% in a year to $347,460 in 2025, compared with $124,265 across all high-net-worth collectors.
The spending has continued to rise. Average fine-art expenditure by Gen Z respondents in the first half of 2026 exceeded their full-year average for 2025. In that half-year, 13% of Gen Z collectors spent more than $1 million in total on fine art, against 3% of collectors overall.
Family money appears to be a large part of the mechanism. Some 40% of Gen Z respondents said family was their main route into collecting, compared with 28% of all respondents. A further 37% said their wealth came mainly from family-related sources, against 15% across the full group.
Art itself is also moving through families. Nearly 90% of Gen Z collectors who inherited artworks held on to them.
For UBS, the transfer has become a service line. The bank created a dedicated Art Advisory Specialist role about a year ago to help families navigate the passage of artwork between generations. Matthew Newton is an executive director and head of Art Advisory Americas on UBS’s Family Office Solutions team.
The younger buyers’ wallets are wider than fine art alone. Fine art makes up 28% of wealthy Gen Z collectors’ spending across art and collectibles, the lowest proportion of any generation. They allocated an average of 26% of their wealth to art, compared with an average of 20% among all high-net-worth collectors surveyed.
Gen Z had the broadest range of tastes, spanning paintings, sculptures, digital art and luxury collectibles, and was the most active generation in digital, film and video art. Some 24% bought in four or more collectible categories, compared with 14% of baby boomers.
Jewellery and gems are one illustration of the broader shopping list. Gen Z respondents spent an average of $151,310 in that category in the first half of 2026, compared with $29,500 for Gen X.
They are buying conspicuously and displaying selectively. Some 39% of Gen Z collectors restricted in-person access to their collections to their household or close family and friends.
McAndrew said Gen Z collectors were “the least likely to share details of their collections publicly online, preferring invitation-only spaces, with privacy central to their personal and cultural identity.”
The survey covered collectors in markets including the U.S., U.K., Mainland China and Brazil. Its findings show a small cohort exerting outsized influence at the top end of art buying, with family wealth and inherited holdings feeding a market that has traditionally relied on older collectors.
Comments (0)