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Dream scenario: Kahlo\u2019s \u2018El sue\u00f1o (La cama)\u2019 sold for a record \u20ac47m (Image: Guy Bell\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\nAfter standing on the scales, feeling the chilly steel of the stethoscope on its chest and going, \u201cAhhhhh,\u201d the global art market\u2019s annual health check is complete. It arrives in the form of the yearly Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, authored by Clare McAndrew, published yesterday and examined further at last night\u2019s live event at The Royal Academy of Arts in London.
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The evaluation, taken from sales data offered by global dealers and auction houses, is much anticipated in an art world ever keen to know if its sun tan and gleaming teeth are a sign of rude health or are obscuring underlying health concerns. So how\u2019s the patient faring?<\/p>\n
Dream scenario: Kahlo\u2019s \u2018El sue\u00f1o (La cama)\u2019 sold for a record \u20ac47m (Image: Guy Bell\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n
Overall, global sales increased by 4 per cent in 2025 to an estimated $59.6bn (\u20ac51.6bn), marking a return to growth after two years of contraction. Auctions did the best with a notable 9 per cent rise, driven by strong sales for works sold under the hammer for more than $10m (\u20ac8.7m). Dealer sales rose by 2 per cent. These are modest figures overall, though, considering the market was valued at $67.8bn (\u20ac59bn) in 2022. So the patient\u2019s celebratory drink after receiving its results might be more a glass of sauvignon blanc than a magnum of Krug.
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While \u201cultra-contemporary\u201d work drove the market out of the pandemic slump, the report shows that sales by contemporary dealers were stagnant in 2025. The numbers also indicate \u201ca structural rebalancing toward established artists and older sectors\u201d, according to the survey. Despite Frida Kahlo\u2019s \u201cEl sue\u00f1o (La cama)\u201d becoming the most expensive work by a female artist when it sold at Sotheby\u2019s last November, the rest of the top-10 auction sales were all paintings by men \u2013 the list headed by three Gustav Klimt works \u2013 and all sold at Sotheby\u2019s in that same, rather lavish, week.<\/p>\n
Does this mean the market looks generally dependable but increasingly conservative? \u201cThe big action was the older, established artists that seem to be selling the best,\u201d says McAndrew. \u201cAs it happens, because of historical biases, that means there are a lot of male artists in those older sectors.\u201d She notes that auctions and dealers leaned similarly trad, a trend that, she adds, \u201cprobably suits the times, in that people are a little bit risk averse. There\u2019s so much rubbish going on around the world that if you want something more certain, you\u2019ll go for those established names.\u201d It seems then that the world\u2019s bellwether collectors are currently in a battening-down-the-hatches mood.<\/p>\n
For dealers the highest and lowest price points did the most business, while the middling \u2013 \u201cworks priced in the five or six figures\u201d \u2013 proved \u201cmore difficult\u201d, according to McAndrew. Big names at big galleries and the tiddlers with attitude and curatorial cleverness seem to have won through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other than the big-money Klimts and Kahlos going under the hammer, many of the art world\u2019s headlines in 2025 concerned the closure of some big-name galleries including Blum, Sperone Westwater and, last month, the Stephen Friedman Gallery. \u201cIn no way do I want to diminish these often irreplaceable galleries going but generally this is a world of real resilience compared with the lifespan of other businesses,\u201d says McAndrew.<\/p>\n
An encouraging note on which to end is the fact that in-person sales continued to increase because, as McAndrew concludes, \u201cyou\u2019re not just buying an item, you\u2019re buying a whole world around it. The art world is, in fact, much more of a service industry than a goods industry.\u201d The diagnosis? Maybe stick to sorbet for pudding \u2013 and do keep up the exercise.<\/p>\n
Robert Bound is a contributing editor at Monocle. For more from Bound, read:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Team of rivals: Tate Britain\u2019s Turner and Constable exhibition shows us two ways of seeing the world
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\u2013 After seven decades of creativity, David Gentleman shares advice for aspiring artists
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