Late last month, Artsy released the art market trends for 2025, analyzing the art market, which, along with the UBS/Basel Art Report, provides another view of the business, which is still widely regarded as the authorities. Since then, Artsy’s majority shareholders have acquired rival art data company Artnet in a deal, the agreement “signs a decisive shift in strategy and priorities as the art market and its data, information and products are distributed (including evolution).” This may not be a particularly exciting moment for selling artworks, but it is certainly a good time for selling its data. We met her discovery with Artsy's chief curator Casey Lesser.
What are the key points in the latest art market trend report?
The report depicts the nuances of how the art market can develop in 2025, especially in the relationship between gallery and collectors. Some key themes stand out.
Online sales are becoming increasingly core: 43% of galleries say they plan to focus more on online sales, with more than half investing in digital content and social media strategies. This shift is driven in part by economic pressures, with 75% of galleries viewing economic uncertainty as a major challenge – but it also reflects the location of collectors. Among collectors under 37, online platforms are already the key space for discovery and purchase: 71% of them purchased art online in 2024.
See also: Basel artworks expand to the bay with new Qatari edition in 2026
Transparency remains a major point: 69% of collectors say they are hesitant to buy artworks due to lack of transparency, especially around prices and source. Most galleries recognize this: 62% say transparency is very important to their collectors. Nevertheless, all available projects are at less than half the price, and most people have not taken any steps to improve transparency in the past year. From Artsy's own data, we know that lists with visible prices are about six times more likely to be sold.
Emerging artists are a common priority: 72% of collectors say they are attracted to emerging artists, often pointing to accessible pricing and excitement of discovering new talent. This also coincides with the gallery’s priorities: 51% say emerging artists are most important to their business, not only for sales, but for building long-term relationships with collectors.
The authoritative model for such reports is a report produced by Dr. Clare McAndrew for Art Basel and UBS. What makes Artsy want to create its own?
Artsy has been publishing data and survey-driven reports, focusing on the art market for more than five years. Over the past few years, we have published separate reports to view behaviors and trends of gallery and collectors. But over time, it is clear that a more meaningful opportunity is to bring these perspectives together and make them directly conversational, just like we do in this new art market trend report.
Given Artsy's position at the intersection of gallery sales and online collection, we uniquely surface to surface what is shaping the art market, what drives buying, where the friction points are and how both parties change and adapt. This year’s report highlights key themes that affect galleries and collectors, and importantly, it demonstrates how the market now works.
Here is a emphasis on collectors, not galleries or auction houses. How did you find a collector?
We surveyed Artsy users and received responses from more than 1,200 collectors in more than 60 countries.
Can you tell me something about your methodology? How did you get this data?
Two concurrent surveys we conducted between February and March 2025 informed the report: one for gallery and one for collectors. We received responses from 384 galleries and 1,236 collectors, with participants in 60 countries per group. Collectors come from Artsy’s user base, gallery group includes Artsy Partners and non-partners.
These surveys are composed around the same core themes such as pricing, sales performance and artist categories. From there, we sorted out the data and compared the responses of the two groups with the alignment and tension surface points.
The term “transparency” is the key to your report. How do you define transparency in the context of the art world?
We define transparency as access to clear, consistent information and context, including pricing, source, availability, and detailed information about the artist and their work online or in person. In fact, this means presenting or sharing prices ahead of time, providing artist BIOS, art descriptions and exhibition history, and providing collectors with the tools they need to make confident, wise decisions. It’s also about unveiling the process of buying art and creating a more passionate environment.
Obviously, the art market is currently in a downturn. How do you reflect your findings?
The answers to the various questions we asked were obvious. For example, 75% of galleries identify economic uncertainty as one of their top challenges. On the collector side, 30% said they bought more selectively, while only 7% reported buying more artworks in 2024 than in the previous year.
It is widely recognized that collector behavior is changing – people are more aware that many have increased transparency and trust in speculation or hype. In response, the gallery is recalibrating: putting more emphasis on digital outreach, creating engaging content and focusing on emerging artists as a way to connect with today’s collectors.
How should galleries locate themselves based on your findings? Do they need fewer fairs? If possible, there are more fairs?
Data shows that the fair is no longer a cookie-cutter solution. Although they are still valuable (especially for building relationships and visibility), only 39% of collectors say the fair is “somewhat important” to their purchasing journey, while 29% say “not very important.”
What the gallery needs is a strategy that balances face-to-face events with strong digital publicity and engagement. This could mean investing in content, social media and online markets to expand their reach, especially internationally.
The question is not about focusing on more or fewer fairs, but how to be more strategically strategic. Which fairs connect with their target audience? Can you expand the face-to-face experience with digital events or follow-up content? The goal is to meet with the collectors they are in and increasingly online.
