Wealthy members of Generation Z are emerging as the biggest spenders in the global art market, laying out more than twice as much on works as older generations.
Collectors aged 20 to 29 spent an average of $347,460 on art last year, up 19% from a year earlier, according to the 2026 Global Collecting Survey released by Art Basel and Swiss banking group UBS.
The pace continued into the first half of this year. Some 13% of Gen Z collectors spent more than $1 million on art in the first six months alone, compared with just 3% of respondents across all age groups.
Young buyers also stood out at the top end of the market. Only 1% of all respondents paid more than $1 million for a single work between the start of last year and the first half of this year, and nearly half of them were from Gen Z.
A small number of big spenders may have pulled up the average. But even measured by the median, Gen Z spending on art was at least 50% higher than that of other generations — a gap difficult to explain by the outlays of a few wealthy buyers alone.
"Gen Z has emerged as the highest-spending generation in this survey, and a generational shift is appearing in collecting culture as well," Art Basel Chief Executive Noah Horowitz said. "These are buyers who are comfortable in digital environments and purchase works through a variety of channels, and their spending patterns will shape the art market going forward."
The survey covered 3,100 collectors in 10 markets, including mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Respondents were high-net-worth individuals with net assets of more than $1 million, excluding real estate and privately held businesses. Gen Z accounted for 9% of the sample.
Gen Z also differed from other generations in how they came to collecting. Some 40% of Gen Z respondents said their interest was sparked by art their families owned or by encouragement from relatives, 12 percentage points above the 28% average for all respondents.
Spending More on Art, but Sharing Less
How collectors show their holdings to others diverged as well. Some 39% of Gen Z collectors said they show their art only to a limited circle such as family and close friends, nearly twice the share among other generations. They were also relatively more likely to share works through invitation-only private groups rather than posting them publicly on social media.
Rather than broadcasting the purchase of an expensive work, they place greater value on sharing a piece's rarity, provenance and originality with people close to them.
"This reflects a tendency to seek recognition of value within close relationships through rarity, provenance and originality, rather than displaying the price of a work," cultural economist Clare McAndrew said. "Privacy is also an important element of Gen Z collectors' personal and cultural identity."
Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in how buyers choose works. Some 22% of all respondents said they use apps or AI tools for advice on art purchases, up 2 percentage points from 2025 and 18 percentage points from 2024.
Trust in AI tools was about twice as high as trust in social media or influencers, and slightly higher than trust in gallery sales staff or media and specialist content. About two-thirds of respondents said AI has a positive effect on discovering new artists and works.
Gen Z collectors were also more willing to buy works by lesser-known artists. More than 55% said they had bought a work by an artist they had not previously known, compared with 36% among collectors aged 62 to 80.
Across the market as a whole, however, the appetite for discovering new artists has weakened. The share of all collectors who bought work by an artist newly introduced to them fell to 45% this year from 66% in last year's survey. Even as buyers gravitate toward established names, Gen Z remains relatively active in seeking out new artists and works.