Art market makes a fragile recovery – but is it enough?
The global art market turned a corner last year, with the UK hanging on to its position as the second-largest art market in the world, says Chris Carter
The Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2026, written by Dr Clare McAndrew, the founder of Arts Economics, a research firm, has added some detail to what we largely knew already – that the global art market returned to growth in 2025 following two years of falling sales values.
Global sales last year rose 4% year-on-year to an estimated $59.6 billion. However, that was still below the peak in 2022 when the art market rebounded after the pandemic and the number of transactions rose by just 2%.
The gains, which finally came in the second half of 2025, “were driven by renewed confidence… and strength at the high end [of the art market] in particular”, says Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, which organises art fairs around the world.
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In the dealer sector, sales rose 2% to an estimated $34.8bn, reversing two years of declines. Private sales at auction houses, however, dipped 5%. So, the art market recovery wasn't felt across the board.
Britain is a major art market
The UK has hung on to its position as the second-largest art market in the world, accounting for 18% of global sales by value ($10.5 billion), the same as in 2024. China, in third place, saw its share decline by one percentage point to 14% – a symptom, perhaps, of its struggling economy and property sector. Activity in other Asian and emerging markets also increased.
The US remains the titan of the art world. Its $26 billion in sales in 2025, up 5% year-on-year, translated into a 44% share of the art market – a one percentage-point uptick from 2024. Together, the US, Britain and China accounted for 76% of global sales by value.
“Policy unpredictability”, as the report puts it, from the White House kept the market guessing in 2025. Imports of art and antiques to the US, which fuels some major sales, rose 13% in value to $9.9 billion (and exports fell 1%) as buyers and sellers tried to negotiate their way around US tariffs.
This year has brought yet more uncertainty due to the conflict in the Middle East. “Markets do not move in isolation,” says Horowitz. “They reflect the ambitions, perspectives, pressures and uncertainties of the world around them.” Will the war be enough to reverse last year's uneven recovery? We don't yet know. The art market, McAndrew tells the Financial Times, operates in a “volatile geopolitical environment, particularly regarding cross-border trade, the full implications of which are still unfolding in 2026”.
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