ZURICH: 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.
Wealthy millennials boosting the art market
Wealthy millennials boosting the art market
- 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
- Millennials’ spending habits could provide significant potential for both online sales and art’s squeezed middle
Writers boycott Adelaide Festival after Randa Abdel-Fattah is dropped
DUBAI: A wave of writers have withdrawn from the Adelaide Festival’s Writers’ Week, prompting organizers to take down a section of the event’s website as the backlash continues over the removal of Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah from the 2026 program.
The festival confirmed on Friday that it had temporarily removed the online schedule listing authors, journalists, academics and commentators after participants began pulling out in protest of the board’s decision, which cited “cultural sensitivity” concerns following the Bondi terror attack.
In a statement posted online, the festival said the listings had been unpublished while changes were made to reflect the growing number of withdrawals.
By Friday afternoon, 47 speakers had already exited the program, with more believed to be coordinating their departures with fellow writers.
High-profile figures stepping away include Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper, Sarah Krasnostein, Miles Franklin Prize winner Michelle de Kretser, Drusilla Modjeska, Melissa Lucashenko and Stella Prize-winning poet Evelyn Araluen.
Best-selling novelist Trent Dalton also withdrew from the event. He had been scheduled to deliver a paid keynote at Adelaide Town Hall, one of the few Writers’ Week sessions requiring a ticket.
