This year’s Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting had an extra piece of research, a smaller survey of 1,400 private buyers drawn from Art Basel’s VIP list. As in the main survey, this smaller group of more directly engaged fair goers also reined in their average spend during 2023 and the first half of 2024, though this was overall higher ($485,450 versus $363,905). They also, perhaps unsurprisingly given the screening criteria, spend more of their art money at fairs than the wider population of rich people—26% versus 11%.
There is some generational nuance when it comes to preferred sales channels in the smaller survey. Up to 32% of Gen X and older respondents (those over 44 years old) said they prefer to buy at fairs, second only to buying from dealers in their galleries (up to 48% for the oldest crew). But this number was at 19% for the millennials and Gen Z category and came in third after buying from galleries (40%) and directly from artists (29%).
Also providing food for thought for fair organisers is Clare McAndrew’s finding that the inner circle crowd reported a big drop-off in event attendance since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Fair attendance halved between 2019 and 2023, from eight per year to four, nudging up to five (including those planned) for 2024. The drop was mirrored, if slightly worse, for all in-person events, including exhibitions, artist studio visits and biennales—which often intensify around art fairs. These fell from a total of 89 per year to 51 for 2024.
In the wider survey, fair attendance had grown from five to six per year between 2019 and 2024 with events in general going up from 42 to 46 expected for this year. But 43% of respondents say they would like to buy art in the next year, versus the whopping 97% in the smaller sample.
It all points to a general trend that long-term buyers are going to fewer fairs while the growth in attendance is from people who are less predisposed to buy. It is a vibe borne out by circumstantial evidence at fairs so far this year, plus—as both surveys and the latest auction data show—what is being sold is at lower price points. Fair organisers, and potential buyers of the now for-sale Frieze franchise, will already be thinking about the reasons the in-crowd collectors are reducing their fair attendance. These include overcrowding, pre-selling, homogeneity of the offerings and the cost and stress of travelling, while the reported top concern was surprisingly selfless: the rising costs of fairs for small- and mid-sized galleries. If these events are to thrive, it likely comes down to finding the elusive way to convert curious visitors into buyers.
