According to Chris Carter, the UK maintained its status as the world's second-largest art market last year as the global art market turned around
The Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2026, authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew, the founder of the research firm Arts Economics, has provided more information about what we already knewthat the global art market began to grow again in 2025 after declining sales values for two years.
Last year, global sales increased by 4% year over year to an estimated £59.6 billion. That was still less than the peak in 2022, though, when the art market recovered from the pandemic and transactions increased by only 2%.
Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, a global organization that hosts art fairs, claims that the gains, which eventually materialized in the second half of 2025, "were driven by renewed confidence and strength at the high end of the art market in particular."
The article is continued below.
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Start your trial Public auction sales increased by 9% over the previous year, but the majority of the activity was limited to pieces valued at more than £10 million. For example, the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (19141916) by Gustav Klimt sold at Sotheby's in New York last November for an incredible £236 million. At auction, that is the second-highest price ever paid for an artwork.
Sales in the dealer sector increased by 2% to an estimated £34.8 billion, reversing two years of declines. However, private sales at auction houses decreased by 5%. Thus, not everyone was affected by the art market's recovery.
The UK is a significant market for art.
The UK has maintained its status as the world's second-largest art market, making up 18% of global sales by value (£10.5 billion), just as it did in 2024. Third-place China's share dropped by one percentage point to 14%, possibly as a result of its faltering real estate and economic sectors. Other Asian and emerging markets saw an increase in activity as well.
The United States continues to dominate the art world. Its £26 billion in sales in 2025, up 5% from the previous year, resulted in a 44% market share for art, an increase of 1 percentage point from 2024. China, the United States, and the United Kingdom together accounted for 76% of global sales by value.
According to the report, the White House's "policy unpredictability" kept investors guessing in 2025. As buyers and sellers attempted to circumvent US tariffs, the value of art and antiques imported into the US, which drives some significant sales, increased 13% to £9.9 billion (while exports decreased 1%).
The Middle East conflict has created even more uncertainty this year. "Markets do not move in isolation," according to Horowitz. "They mirror the aspirations, viewpoints, demands, and uncertainties of their surroundings. We are unsure if the war will be sufficient to undo the uneven recovery of the previous year. The Financial Times is informed by McAndrew that the art market functions within a "volatile geopolitical environment, particularly regarding cross-border trade, the full implications of which are still unfolding in 2026".
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