Contents
- Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: U.S. Artwork Acquisition and Participation
- Visual Art Purchasing Statistics by State
- Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Fine-Art Buying by Medium
- Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Collector Spending and Artwork Volumes
- Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Galleries, Fairs, Artists, and Online Channels
- Sources
Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: U.S. Artwork Acquisition and Participation
About 12% of U.S. adults surveyed in 2022 said they had acquired one or more pieces of visual art in the previous 12 months. The survey included paintings, drawings, sculpture, pottery, and other visual art. This is a measure of reported participation over a year, not the number or value of works sold nationally. In the same survey, 11% said they had created paintings, sculpture, graphic designs, digital art, or other visual art during that period. Creating art and acquiring it are separate activities, and the percentages should not be added together as though they describe mutually exclusive groups. National Endowment for the Arts, 50 States of Arts Participation: 2022
The U.S. adult survey and the global collector survey cited below describe different populations. The first estimates participation among adult residents; the second reports on surveyed high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) across 10 markets who met the study’s active-buyer screening criteria. The collector figures are useful for understanding that group’s behavior, but they do not represent all art buyers or the general public.
Visual Art Purchasing Statistics by State
Reported artwork acquisition varied across states and the District of Columbia in the 2022 survey. The District of Columbia had the highest cited rate, at 34% of adult residents. Oregon followed among the listed examples at 27%, with Nebraska at 25% and North Carolina at 21%. Each was described as measurably above the national rate.
At the lower end of the reported range, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia each recorded 4%. Arkansas was at 7% and Florida at 8%; these rates were described as below the national rate. The difference between the District of Columbia’s 34% and the three states at 4% is 30 percentage points. These are survey estimates of adults who acquired art during the prior 12 months, not counts of purchases or measures of spending. National Endowment for the Arts, 50 States of Arts Participation: 2022, section 4 and exhibit 12
| Place | Adults reporting artwork acquisition |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 34% |
| Oregon | 27% |
| Nebraska | 25% |
| North Carolina | 21% |
| Florida | 8% |
| Arkansas | 7% |
| Alabama | 4% |
| Mississippi | 4% |
| Georgia | 4% |
Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Fine-Art Buying by Medium
Among surveyed active HNWIs across 10 markets, 78% bought at least one work of fine art in 2024. For the first half of 2025, 74% reported doing so. The second figure covers six months, while the first covers a full year, so the percentages do not establish a year-over-year decline. Art Basel and UBS, The Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, sections 3.2–3.3
Among surveyed fine-art buyers, 67% purchased a painting and 56% a sculpture during 2024 and the first half of 2025. These categories can overlap: a collector could have bought both. In the same combined period, 51% of surveyed HNWIs bought a digital artwork. This is a participation measure, not digital art’s share of total works or expenditure.
Age-group results show different patterns within the surveyed collector population. Among Gen Z fine-art buyers, 88% purchased a painting during 2024 or the first half of 2025. Separately, 63% of surveyed Gen Z HNWIs bought digital artwork in that period. The survey defined Gen Z as ages 20–28 at the July 2025 survey. These figures describe surveyed high-net-worth collectors in that age band, not all people of the same generation. Among surveyed male fine-art buyers, 70% purchased a painting, compared with 64% of female fine-art buyers.
Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Collector Spending and Artwork Volumes
The global collecting survey reported an average of $438,990 in 2024 art-and-antiques expenditure per surveyed active HNWI across its 10 markets. That total includes antiques and should not be read as spending on visual art alone. The median was $24,000. The large gap between average and median indicates that the average is pulled upward by respondents spending much more than the middle collector; the report also states that 10% spent more than $500,000 and 7% spent more than $1 million on art and antiques in 2024. Art Basel and UBS, The Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, section 3.1 and figure 3.10
The median art-and-antiques expenditure was $22,000 in the first half of 2025. This covers half a year, so it is not directly comparable with the 2024 full-year median as an annual trend. In 2024, surveyed HNWIs purchased an average of 14 works, including six works of fine art. The remaining works in that average should not automatically be classified as antiques, since the cited passage does not specify their composition.
For the subset of surveyed HNWIs who bought fine art in 2024, average fine-art expenditure was $151,820. This denominator differs from the overall collector spending figures: it is an average among fine-art buyers, and it concerns fine art rather than combined art and antiques. Keeping those measures separate makes the figures more useful than treating them as interchangeable estimates of a typical art purchase.
Visual Art Purchasing Statistics: Galleries, Fairs, Artists, and Online Channels
During 2024 and the first half of 2025, 83% of surveyed HNWIs bought through a gallery or dealer, including purchases in person, online, through social media, or at an art fair. The reported channel definition spans several ways of transacting, so the 83% does not mean that all purchases occurred inside a gallery. Fifty-eight percent made purchases connected to art fairs during the same period, while 49% bought at auction. Art Basel and UBS, The Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, key findings and section 4.1
Direct artist sales were also common in this surveyed group: 63% purchased directly from an artist. Artists’ studios were the most frequently reported route for accessing those sales, cited by 43% of surveyed HNWIs. In addition, 37% commissioned a work directly from an artist. These are distinct behaviors and may overlap with other channels.
Social media appeared both in dealer-related and artist-direct purchasing. Among HNWIs who purchased from a dealer, 51% made at least one purchase via Instagram without viewing the work in person. Separately, 35% of surveyed HNWIs used Instagram to find and purchase directly from an artist, either directly or through a link. The denominators differ: the first percentage is limited to dealer purchasers, while the second refers to surveyed HNWIs in the artist-direct sales discussion. These results show that online discovery and buying were part of collectors’ reported activity, alongside galleries, fairs, auctions, and studio visits.