How much of their wealth do collectors actually hold in art?

According to the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, high-net-worth collectors allocated an average of 20% of their total wealth to art in 2025, up sharply from 15% the year before — and as high as 28% among those holding more than $50 million in total assets.

Patina Field (100 x 100 cm), acrylic on canvas, in situ — Alyne Perfeito, Perfeito Studio — Patina Field (100 × 100 cm), in situ. Perfeito Studio.

The headline number: a fifth of wealth, and climbing

The clearest measure of how deeply art now sits inside private wealth comes from the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, researched by Arts Economics (Dr. Clare McAndrew) and published jointly by Art Basel and UBS. Surveying 3,100 high-net-worth individuals across ten markets — the United States, United Kingdom, mainland China, Hong Kong, France, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Singapore — the study found that collectors allocated an average of 20% of their total wealth to art in the first half of 2025, up from 15% the year before.

That is a self-reported figure, not an audited balance sheet: it reflects what collectors say when asked how their assets divide between art, real estate, securities, and other holdings. But the scale of the jump — five percentage points in a single year — is what makes the number worth sitting with rather than treating as a curiosity.

Wealth tier and time in the market move the number more than anything else

The 20% average hides a wide spread. Ultra-high-net-worth collectors — those with more than $50 million in total assets — reported allocating an average of 28% of their wealth to art, according to the same survey. Experience mattered just as much as wealth tier: collectors with more than two decades in the market allocated 24%, compared with 16% among those newer to collecting. Generationally, Gen Z respondents reported an average allocation of 26%, higher than the overall figure despite typically having the shortest collecting histories of any group surveyed.

Read together, the pattern is less "art is 20% of a wealthy portfolio" and more: the longer someone collects, and the more they hold, the larger the share of their wealth art tends to occupy — a trajectory rather than a fixed target.

What this number is not: a formula, or advice

None of this is a target to hit. The Art Basel & UBS figures describe what collectors already holding significant wealth report allocating, after acquiring art for reasons of aesthetic conviction, family history, or the pull of a specific work — not because a spreadsheet told them 20% was correct. Art is illiquid, its value is not marked to market daily, and a percentage that makes sense inside a $50 million portfolio has no automatic bearing on a first acquisition.

This page is informational, not financial advice: it reports what named surveys measured, on the dates cited below, and nothing here should be read as a recommendation about how much of anyone's own wealth belongs in art.

From the studio

From the studio: the number collectors actually ask about

Almost nobody who writes to this studio opens with a percentage. What collectors ask about is a specific piece — its scale against a specific wall, the weight of the surface, whether the gold catches light from the east or the west. The wealth-allocation research above is real and worth knowing, but in my experience it describes a pattern that shows up across a career of collecting, more than it describes any single decision to acquire.

What I can speak to directly, as an architect as much as a painter, is the other side of that number: what actually gets documented when a work leaves the studio. Every acquisition here comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity, an internal Archive ID, and a dossier — the paper trail that lets a piece be counted, insured, and eventually passed on, whatever share of a collection it ends up representing.

Frequently asked

What percentage of their wealth do wealthy collectors hold in art?

According to the Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, high-net-worth collectors allocated an average of 20% of their total wealth to art in the first half of 2025, up from 15% in 2024. The figure rises with wealth level and collecting experience — ultra-high-net-worth collectors with over $50 million in assets averaged 28%.

Does the percentage of wealth in art go up the wealthier someone is?

Yes, in this survey it did. Ultra-high-net-worth individuals, defined in the study as those with more than $50 million in total assets, reported an average allocation of 28% to art, compared with the overall average of 20% across all high-net-worth respondents surveyed.

Is a 20% allocation to art something a new collector should aim for?

No. These figures describe what already-wealthy, often long-tenured collectors report holding after years of acquisition, not a target for a new collector to replicate. Art is illiquid and not routinely revalued the way securities are, and this page is informational rather than financial advice — it should not be read as a recommendation for any individual's own allocation.

Does buying directly from an artist's studio, rather than a gallery or auction house, change any of this?

The wealth-allocation research cited here doesn't distinguish by acquisition channel. What buying directly from a working studio does change is documentation and cost: there is no gallery markup, and each work leaves with a signed Certificate of Authenticity, a fiscal invoice, and an internal Archive ID, the same paperwork that lets any acquisition be tracked as part of a collection over time.

Considering where a piece fits in your own collection?

Ask Alyne about a specific work, its documentation, or shipping to your city — replies are personal, not a sales script.

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