THE NEW COLLECTORS: What Are Collectors Actually Buying in 2026?

The art market is moving again, but the way people collect is changing. After two difficult years, global art sales returned to growth in 2025, reaching an estimated $59.6 billion, up 4% year on year. Yet the recovery has not been uniform. The strongest momentum has returned to established artists, major auctions and in-person buying, while collectors are becoming increasingly selective about where they put their money.

So what is the new collector actually buying?

The first answer is perhaps more traditional than expected: established art is back. In 2025, auction sales rose 9%, while works selling for more than $1 million increased significantly in both value and volume. Modern and Old Masters also outperformed ultra-contemporary art, suggesting that collectors are once again looking for artists and periods with a stronger historical position and a more established market. The shift does not mean that young artists have disappeared from collectors’ radar, but it does suggest that confidence and proven quality are becoming increasingly important.

At the same time, discovering new artists remains fundamental. According to the 2026 Art Basel and UBS research, 66% of high-net-worth collectors purchased works by artists they had not previously collected, up from 43% in 2022. This is one of the most interesting contradictions in today's market: collectors are becoming more cautious with their money while remaining curious about new names. The difference is that discovery no longer necessarily means speculation. Collectors are increasingly looking for artists whose work they genuinely want to live with, rather than simply hoping that prices will rise.

The other major change is happening in how people collect. The era in which a collection was built exclusively through a gallery or auction house is becoming less representative of today's reality. Art fairs remain extremely important, accounting for 35% of dealer turnover in 2025, their highest share since 2022. But collectors are also returning to studios, exhibitions and direct encounters with artists. Art Basel's recent analysis found that studio visits experienced one of the strongest increases among collector activities, while spending through direct purchases from artists grew substantially.

Digital collecting has not disappeared, but its role is changing. Online sales fell to $9.2 billion in 2025, their lowest level since 2019, while high-value transactions moved increasingly back into physical spaces. Instagram, however, remains remarkably influential: 51% of surveyed high-net-worth collectors reported buying art through Instagram. The platform is therefore becoming less a substitute for the gallery than a discovery tool — a place where collectors encounter artists before deciding whether they want to see the work in person.

Perhaps the most significant development, however, is that collectors are becoming less interested in rigid categories. Younger generations in particular are moving between contemporary art, design, decorative arts, jewellery, photography and digital works. Millennials show particularly broad interests across design, decorative art and jewellery, while Gen Z collectors demonstrate strong engagement with digital art and other emerging categories. Collecting is increasingly becoming an extension of lifestyle rather than a single-market activity.

This also explains the growing appeal of what could be called cross-category collecting. A collector might acquire a contemporary painting, a twentieth-century design piece, an Old Master, a photograph and a piece of jewellery without feeling the need to define themselves through one particular category. The collection becomes less about following a single canon and more about building a personal visual world.

And perhaps that is the most important change of all.

The new collector is not necessarily buying less. They are buying with more intention. They want provenance, quality, context and a relationship with the artist. They may discover a painter on Instagram, see the work at an art fair, visit the studio and eventually acquire a piece directly. They may collect a young emerging artist alongside a Modern master. They may care as much about the story behind an object as its position within the market.

The 2026 collector is therefore difficult to define — and that may be precisely the point. The contemporary collection is becoming more personal, more fluid and increasingly connected to the way people actually live.

The new collector is not simply building a collection. They are building a world.