The future is looking bright for the art market in Asia, where more and more young people are buying art.
In the past few years, millennials and Gen Z have dramatically increased their art purchases. While Gen X remain the most important market, millennials now make up more than 40% of Sotheby's Asian buyers, said Nicolas Chow, the auction house's chairman for Asia. Christie's reports similar figures: millennials from the Asia Pacific made up nearly 40% of their buyers in the first half of 2023, in contrast to the 20% seen in the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. In that same period, millennials in Asia spent a median of $59,785, with Gen Z nearly matching at $56,000, according to the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2023.
Most of Christie's millennial art buyers come from mainland China, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. In fact, art sales rose by 9% last year in China, making it the world's second largest art market, even as global art sales fell by 4%.
Art Basel & UBS also reported that, unlike older buyers, millennials spent mostly on sculptures, installations, photography and film or video art. "Millennial collectors are drawn to figurative work," said Erin Remington, director of sales and curation at Saatchi Art. He adds: "there is also a demand among young buyers for surrealist landscapes that portray spiritual spaces."
Gen Z buyers, on the other hand, favor digital art and prints. The Art Market Report says sales of NFTs--Non-Fungible Tokens--reached $1.2billion last year, nothing like the $2.9 billion at its peak, but a far cry from the $20 million that it earned in 2020.
It's not just new art forms that young buyers are exploring: according to Artsy, 64% believe they should purchase work from emerging artist, as opposed to the 43% of older buyers.
