{"id":97222,"date":"2025-10-25T11:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T11:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/97222\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T11:12:12","slug":"how-gen-z-is-redefining-collecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/97222\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gen Z Is Redefining Collecting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf the old collecting hierarchy ran from painting to sculpture to\u2014perhaps\u2014design objects, Gen Z has turned that pyramid on its head. Data collected in the\u00a0Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025<\/a>, released Thursday,\u00a0reveals a generation for whom art, sneakers, digital assets, and design exist on one seamless continuum, a portfolio of identity as much as investment.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the report, which was authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew, Gen Z collectors allocate the\u00a0highest share of their total wealth to art and collectibles: 26 percent, more than any other generation. Within that, they devote\u00a056 percent of spending to collectibles, far exceeding the 41 percent average across all high-net-worth individuals.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Visitors<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir shopping carts look less like museum catalogues than lifestyle checklists: limited-edition sneakers, luxury handbags, cars, watches, and sports assets sit alongside digital and generative artworks. The report\u2019s authors note that, while high net-worth Baby Boomers spent the most on fine art, antiques, and watches, and Millennials dominated the jewelry, decorative art, and design sectors, Gen Z reigns over most other sectors, including luxury collectible handbags, collectible sneakers (\u201calmost five times the level of any other generational group,\u201d the report said), classic cars, boats, jets, and sports memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis flattening of categories reflects what the report\u2019s foreword calls\u00a0\u201ca widening definition of connoisseurship, where art increasingly sits alongside design, luxury goods, and lifestyle collectibles.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of curating discrete genres, Gen Z collects across mediums and markets \u2014 a reflection of their catholic taste and digital fluency.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked what they plan to buy next,\u00a041 percent of Gen Z collectors said antiques,\u00a040 percent jewelry, and roughly\u00a0one-third intended to buy watches, design works, and collectible wine or spirits.\u00a0 Even decorative art and design\u2014categories once dismissed as peripheral\u2014are seeing renewed interest, with purchasing intentions more than doubling among the two youngest age groups.<\/p>\n

\n\tDigital art has moved from fringe to foundational.\u00a0Among high-net-worth collectors planning to buy art in the next 12 months,\u00a0paintings remain the top choice\u00a0(48 percent), followed by\u00a0sculpture\u00a0(37 percent). Gen Z collectors show the strongest appetite for the latter\u201440percent plan to acquire a sculptural work, a higher share than Gen X or millennials.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile demand for paintings and sculptures held steady year over year,\u00a0interest in most other categories\u2014works on paper, prints, and photography\u2014declined.\u00a0The lone exception was digital art:\u00a023 percent of collectors\u00a0planning to buy this year hope to acquire a digital work,\u00a0up from 19 percent in 2024\u00a0and climbing to\u00a026 percent among Gen Z collectors.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn collections overall, digital works now represent an average\u00a013 percent share, rebounding sharply from 3 percent in 2024, thanks to a renewed interest in generative and AI-based art.<\/p>\n

\n\tCrucially, digital art ownership skews young and female\u201432 percent of Gen Z women own at least one digital artwork, compared with 49 percent of Gen X women who do not. That tilt signals not a speculative revival but a generational comfort with virtual ownership.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat unites these seperate categories is attitude. Gen Z\u2019s approach to collecting is social, performative, and self-referential. For younger collectors, it seems, art is increasingly social and performative\u2014part of how they express taste and identity, not just something to hang on a wall or keep in a freeport. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn his introduction to the report, Art Basel<\/a> CEO Noah Horowitz wrote, \u201cFor many, collecting has become an expression of identity, shaped as much by personal pleasure and social connection as by financial motivation.\u201d The report\u2019s sales-channel data backs that up:\u00a051 percent of collectors purchased via Instagram without seeing the work in person, and\u00a035 percent bought directly through Instagram links.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s the true disruption: collecting\u2019s ground zero is shifting from the white cube to the feed. Art fairs remain important, of course, but identity is unfolding across platforms and with ownership itself is becoming a kind of content.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe art market\u2019s future audience doesn\u2019t appear to see a boundary between a Takashi Murakami print and a pair of limited-edition Nike Dunks; both are cultural signifiers with value that is at once emotional, social, and economic.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the report makes clear, Gen Z\u2019s hybrid model\u2014part investor, part curator, part influencer\u2014may be the first genuine paradigm shift since globalization rewired the market two decades ago. What comes next is probably not the democratization of collecting, but its virtualization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the old collecting hierarchy ran from painting to sculpture to\u2014perhaps\u2014design objects, Gen Z has turned that pyramid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1804,64814,437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46,64815],"class_list":["post-97222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art-basel","tag-art-basel-ubs-report","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-top-200-art-collectors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}