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Art Market Review 2025
Now in its tenth edition, the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report is the pre-eminent source for the assessment of the art market’s size and underlying performance. Pulling together key trends and developments across the diverse sectors of the international art market is a huge undertaking and this year the report paints a picture of measured improvement in the global sector.
A review of the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026
According to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, sales in the international art market during 2025 increased by 4% to an estimated $59.6bn, up from $57.5bn twelve months earlier.1
Sales in the global art market 2009-2025
After a difficult last two years, it’s encouraging to see the global art market and returning to growth. While modest and still markedly below the post-pandemic high in 2022 of $68.1bn, the return to a more normalised performance is welcome news for a market rocked by the turbulence experienced across the wider international financial markets in 2023 and 2024.
"The return to a more normalised performance is welcome news."
Improved market performance
UK maintains position as the second largest global market
The three main hubs of the US, UK and China continued their market dominance with a combined 76% shares of art sales (stable from 2024 but down from 78% in 2023 and 80% in 2022). The US maintained its position as the leading global market with 44% of sales by value (up from 43%) equating to $26.0bn. The 2025 result reflected a 5% increase on 2024 ($24.8bn). Nevertheless the uncertainty created by the US administration’s trade tariffs policy, the domestic market was elevated by strong results at the November auctions held in New York.
The UK maintained its position as the second largest market with 18% of global sales (unchanged from 2024). Sales in the UK reached $10.5bn in 2025, up 2% from 2024. While public auction sales grew in 2025, dealer and private sales were more muted, leaving totals still below those achieved in 2019.
China ranked third globally in 2025, with 14% of sales totalling $8.5bn, down by 1% on the previous year. Auction sales picked up in the domestically focused mainland China market, while the more internationally positioned market in Hong Kong reduced. Demand was stronger at the high end for ‘museum quality’ works, but the middle and lower tiers underperformed as consumer confidence remained affected by ongoing economic pressures, including employment concerns and the prolonged slump in the regional property market.
In Europe, France maintained its position as the fourth largest market worldwide, accounting for $4.5bn of sales and an 8% global market share (up 1% from 2024), with positive results in both the auction and dealer sectors. Performance elsewhere in Europe was mixed, with growth in Switzerland (up 13%), Austria (up 13%), and Spain (up 6%), while Germany (down 10%) and Italy (down 2%) slowed. Supported by the strong performance of France, total sales across EU (excluding the UK) increased 3% to $8.4 billion - marginally below their pre-pandemic 2019 level.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Blumenwiese (Blooming Meadow), c.1908. Source: Alamy
Auction market recovery
Reflecting the wider global art market recovery in 2025, following two years of contraction, auction market sales recorded a positive result with public auction sales increasing by 9% to $20.7bn. Although private sales declined by 5% to $4.2bn, the overall result for auction sales of $24.8bn still represented a 6% increase on 2024.
The 2025, performance was led by sales at the high-end, with six works selling above $50m including one lot significantly in excess of $100m; while the top 100 lots totalled $2.13bn up 18% from the previous year. Although the result was well below the 2022 market peak, the year still represented a marked improvement on the previous 12 months.
"Auction market sales recorded a positive result with public auction sales increasing by 9%."
High-value sales after the 2022 peak
In the standout year of 2022, 24 works sold at auction above $50m including an unprecedented six lots selling above the coveted $100m threshold.3 In 2023, six works sold in excess of $50m of which two breached $100m.3 In 2024, just three works sold in excess of $50m of which one exceeded $100m.3 The top 100 lots sold at auction totalled $1.8bn in 2024, compared to $2.4bn in 2023 and $4.1bn in 2022.
A major driver in the 2022 art market peak was the number of high-end auction works brought to market through exceptional single-owner sales. The extraordinary sale of the collection of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen arranged via Christie’s New York in November 2022, saw 155 lots reach a record $1.62bn, of which five works each exceeded $100m. While in November 2021 and June 2022 Sotheby’s New York sold the collection of real estate tycoon Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda, with the combined sales realising $922.2m.4
In 2025 the Leonard A. Lauder and the Cindy and Jay Pritzker collections came to market and generated significant combined sales, including several auction records. Both collections were presented at Sotheby’s New York in their November sales. The Lauder sale brought to auction the prominent collection of the American billionaire and owner of the Estée Lauder cosmetic group, founded by his parents. The sale featured 24 masterpieces, all of which sold and comfortably exceeded the high pre-sale estimate of $412.5m to realise $527.5m.
The Pritzker collection came to auction following the death of Cindy, the wife of Jay Pritzker, the American businessman and founder of the Hyatt hotel chain. Featuring 13 works of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art, the sale realised $109.5m and was headlined by Vincent van Gogh’s, Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Romans parisiens) (1887). The still life, painted by the artist during his stay in Paris, depicts quantities of books with brightly coloured bindings alongside a rose in a small glass. It sold for $62.7m, the fourth highest auction lot of the year.
Record-breaking Klimt sale highlights strength at the top end of the art market
Undoubtedly the standout sale of the year was Gustav Klimt’s, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) (1914-16), from the Lauder collection. A monumental work, measuring 180.4cm by 130.5cm, Klimt’s painting depicts Elisabeth Lederer, the Austrian heiress of the artist’s leading patrons, August and Serena Lederer. The work belongs to a group of paintings from the period when Klimt was inspired by East Asian art, and depicts the sitter dressed in an elaborate Chinese robe and gown. The painting sold for $236.4m, setting a Sotheby’s record and becoming the second-highest price ever achieved at auction, behind Leonardo da Vinci’s, Salvator Mundi (c.1500), which realised $450.3m at Christie’s New York in 2017. The result also underlined the renewed strength of the very top end of the market in 2025.
The Lauder collection sale was similarly notable for achieving the second and third highest auction lots of the year, each also by Klimt. Blumenwiese (Blooming Meadow) (c.1908) which realised $86.0m was part of the artist’s series of flowering meadow compositions, where the surface of the canvas is filled with mosaic-like trees and flowers. The other work, also a landscape, Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee (Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee) (1916) sold for $68.3m. This late painting, which is the last known landscape of Klimt’s career, depicts a densely wooded scene steeply sloping down to the banks of Lake Attersee in Austria.
Collectively, the substantial amounts realised at the Lauder sale for the three works by Klimt reinforce the market appeal of the Austrian artist in recent years. The $236.4m achieved for the sale of the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16), dramatically eclipsed Klimt’s previous auction record of $106.8m set at Sotheby’s London in 2023 for his last portrait entitled Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) 1917 – a painting that had previously been sold at auction in 1994 for $11.6m.5
Global auction trends
The three largest markets, the US, China and the UK, collectively accounted for 72% of total public auction sales by value (up 2% from 2024). The 2025 results underlined the US market pre-eminent global position, with its share increasing by 3% to 34%. China’s share reduced to 24%, after briefly matching the US in 2023, when the market reopened following the pandemic lockdowns. The UK remained in third place with 14%, followed by France with 11%.
After two years of decline, US auction sales rose by 20% to $7.0bn. Most of the growth was driven by the strong performance in the second half of the year, with high value works in the $10m plus segment being brought to market achieving robust sales. All ten of the year’s highest selling works, and 39 of the top 50 lots were sold in New York. The combined value of art works sold at auction over $10 million increased by almost 40% - an impressive result although still below the peak in 2022 and the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
US auction dominance
Christie’s and Sotheby’s posted improved results in 2025 with figures which underlined the significant reliance on the US market. Sotheby’s reported total sales of $7.1bn in 2025, up 18% on 2024, surpassing its pre-pandemic 2019 total ($5.8bn) but below the $8bn company record set in 2022. Public auction sales at Sotheby’s totalled $5.7bn, up by 26% from 2024, with sales dominated by the US, which accounted for 57% of total value. Christie’s reported total sales of $6.2bn (up 6% from $5.8bn in 2024), surpassing 2023 and in line with its pre-pandemic 2019 total. Sales were still below the peak in 2022, when the company recorded its highest-ever gross sales of $8.4bn, driven in part by the Paul Allen collection sale held that year. The US remained the major sales hub for Christie’s, accounting for 55% of total sales in 2025 (up 7% from 2024), although still less than in 2022 (63%).
The top ten works sold at auction were realised in the New York sales at Sotheby’s (six lots) and Christie’s (four lots), with nine of the ten selling in the November auctions. These two houses also dominated the top 50, accounting for 46 lots, with the other four sold by Phillips New York, Shanghai Jiahe and Lucien Paris. Taken collectively, the US auction results again confirmed New York’s pre-eminence as the leading global hub, where the highest-priced works are sold to both national and international buyers.
Outlook for 2026
The generally optimistic outlook for 2026 indicated by the Art Basel report must be tempered by the timing of its publication, with its release just after the latest escalation of hostilities in the Middle East. While the duration and ramifications of the US war with Iran remains uncertain, its wide-ranging impact on the global financial markets is being felt already. Soaring fuel costs are hitting both consumers and companies alike, and it appears inevitable that mortgages, interest rates and inflation will continue to spike, at least in the short-term.
The art market does not operate in a vacuum and remains directly impacted by global events. Prior to the military acts of the US and Israeli governments against Iran, the international art market entered 2026 with renewed confidence. Strong art fair and auction sales in New York in late 2025 demonstrated renewed consumer confidence with sellers viewing the market cycle as an opportune time to bring high quality works to market, and buyers willing to purchase such works.
How the art market will respond, or indeed will be able to respond, to this latest political and economic situation is difficult to predict. What is clear and has been demonstrated in the years during and after the pandemic, is that the art market has the capability to adapt and respond in times of disruption and adversity. Those connected to the global art market will trust that 2026 continues this established trend of resilience.
1 Unless stated otherwise, all figures quoted are from the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2026
2 Percentages presented throughout the report are rounded and reported to their nearest integer (apart from those less than 0.5%). In some cases, therefore, the integers in charts do not sum to 100% (but sum to 99% or 101%) due to rounding.
3 Artnet Price Database Fine Art and Design
4 See the Art Market Review of 2022
5 See the Art market Review of 2023