Contemporary Art Market Declines For Fourth Straight Year, as Old Masters and Impressionist Works Rebound: Art Basel UBS Report

Contemporary Art Market Declines For Fourth Straight Year, as Old Masters and Impressionist Works Rebound: Art Basel UBS Report

For much of the past decade, the art market behaved as though history had stopped. Collectors and speculators chased the wet paint with missionary zeal, convinced that the next studio visit might yield a future masterpiece (or a tidy return when flipped onto the secondary market). Auction houses obliged, turning evening sales into pageants for artists who barely had time to form a reputation. That fever appears to have broken, according to the…

After Two Years Of Decline, Global Art Market Grew 4 Percent in 2025

The 2026 Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, published on March 12, revealed an upturn in fortunes for the global art market, with total sales rising by 4 percent from the previous year to $59.6 billion. Although this is still below the 2022 peak of $67.8 billion, it marked an improvement after two years […]

Art communities and heritage in Iran, moderate recovery in the art market, Sydney Biennale—podcast

Ben Luke talks to Sarvy Geranpayeh about the continuing violence in the Middle East, discusses the new Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report with its author Clare McAndrew, and speaks to our reporter in Australia, Elizabeth Fortescue, about a new installation at the Sydney Biennale.

Art Basel CEO shows careful confidence in global art market

The CEO of Art Basel, one of the world’s biggest art fairs, has expressed quiet confidence in the global art market after sales grew in 2025 following two years of contraction, a report from Art Basel and UBS has shown. Noah Horowitz, who took the helm of Art Basel in 2022, highlighted that while geopolitical tension is on the rise, the art market has proven itself to be robust, with global sales increasing by 4 per cent in 2025. This is accordi…