Fine Art Market Attracting Younger Buyers

The sale of a Gustav Klimt painting for $236.4 million (£179.7m) at an auction in New York in November once again shone the spotlight on the fine art market, proving that even in lean economic times, there will always be collectors with deep pockets who will be prepared to pay what it takes to own the art they desire, writes Tim Blyth.

This end of the art market is, of course, dominated by a very small number of very wealthy collectors, but that does not mean that there aren’t plenty of art-lovers who are not billionaires out there who are happy to spend their hard-earned cash on indulging their passion.

Pictures and other art have always been a regular part of what goes under the hammer in the saleroom at Keys.  Our monthly Antiques, Pictures and Collectibles Sale typically has anything between 150 and 200 paintings and watercolours, while our thrice-yearly Fine Sales and East Anglian Art Sales are where you will find those quality artworks which are in greater demand (and hence which achieve higher hammer prices).

It is interesting to see the changing tastes in art over the years.  Where once the fine art saleroom was the more or less sole preserve of the ‘Old Master’, a new, younger cohort of buyers are seeking a wider variety of art, and in particular modern and contemporary art. 

Of the top 20 prices ever paid for art at auction, 18 have been for works created in the last 150 years.  This trend is reflected across all levels of the market; the demand for modern art has mushroomed in recent years.

Encouragingly, this is partly because more and more buyers are seeking to buy works for their original intended purpose – to be looked at.  People aren’t buying as an investment, and they certainly don’t want to hide their pictures away in a bank vault.  Today’s collectors are putting their art on their walls and enjoying it.

It is striking how the balance of bidders has changed over the past ten years or so.  Where once at least half of those in the room would have been dealers, now we see far more individual bidders (and many of those are online).  It is one of the reasons we recently moved our monthly Picture Sale to a Saturday – the saleroom is becoming more of a consumer-led retail environment.

All of which does not mean that paintings and art from older eras have completely fallen out of favour.  There is still a definite market for them, especially at the upper end, but the art market is now much more diverse than it used to be.

For those consigning art to be sold, this is good news.  While work by big name artists will always sell, today’s buyers are just as interested in whether they like the actual picture, and with thousands of potential buyers logging in online from all over the UK and from overseas, the chances of finding someone prepared to bid for your piece of art are better than ever.