Global art sales rose 4 per cent to US$59.6bn in 2025, Art Basel and UBS found

Global art sales rose 4 per cent in 2025 to an estimated US$59.6bn, after two consecutive years of decline, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, released on 12 March 2026 and reported by The Art Newspaper.

The total remained short of the US$67.8bn recorded in 2023 and of the all-time peak of US$68.2bn in 2014.

High-end sales drove the gain. The combined value of auction turnover above US$10m rose 9 per cent, after a steep fall in 2023, when political uncertainty led many collectors to keep their best works off the market.

Dealers grew more slowly. Gallery sales rose 2 per cent on average to an estimated US$34.8bn, 58 per cent of the market, and galleries with annual turnover above US$10m reported a 3 per cent rise. The strongest gains were lower down: dealers with turnover of US$250,000 to US$500,000 a year reported a 25 per cent average rise in sales, against 3 per cent for the largest galleries.

Costs ate into the recovery. Dealers’ operating costs rose an estimated 5 per cent on average, ahead of inflation in most major markets. Some 56 per cent of dealers said tariffs had hurt their business, and 72 per cent identified higher ancillary costs.

The report counts Klimt’s ‘Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer’ (1916), which sold for US$236m, the second-highest price ever achieved by a work at auction. It ranks geopolitical and economic instability as the art trade’s number one concern.