Art market banking on new generation of collectors

“We are insuring more and more 30-somethings for collections of 300,000, 500,000, or a million euros,” he noted.

“These are successful start-uppers, investment bankers, lawyers, or sometimes people who have inherited,” and they begin their collections “very young”, sometimes making “very radical” choices, he said.

UBS expects that trend to increase. According to its projections, an unprecedented wealth transfer will take place over the next 20 to 25 years with the general ageing of the population.

Globally, around $83 trillion in assets will change hands, it says, meaning “there’s a whole new generation of collectors coming to the market with different buying patterns”, said Eric Landolt, global co-head of the family advisory, art and collecting department at UBS.