The global art market is showing signs of recovery following a challenging period, but collectors are demonstrating a distinctly cautious approach, favoring established artists and works with historical significance over experimental pieces. Recent art fairs and auctions in London and Paris during October revealed that while buyers are willing to spend, they're prioritizing safety and institutional backing in their purchases.
The Frieze art fairs in London showcased lesser-known artists but achieved their highest reported sale with a collaborative work by two twentieth-century masters: Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol's "Highest Crossing" (1984), which sold for $6 million through Vito Schnabel Gallery. The painting incorporates diverse elements including calligraphy, scratched-out words, and an alligator depiction, demonstrating the continued appeal of blue-chip artist collaborations.
Paris commanded even higher individual prices, particularly at the Art Basel Paris fair, where heavyweight works dominated sales. The top reported transaction involved a two-meter-high, yellowish abstract painting by Gerhard Richter from 1987, priced at $23 million at Hauser & Wirth. Multiple Richter works appeared throughout the fair, coinciding strategically with the artist's retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Despite these notable high-value sales, expensive artworks remain exceptional in today's uncertain market conditions. A comprehensive survey of 3,100 collectors worldwide, conducted by Clare McAndrew and published by Art Basel and UBS, revealed that the median spending in 2024 was $24,000, while the average reached $438,990. This significant gap reflects the influence of a dwindling baby boomer generation and collectors from mainland China who continue to drive up average purchase prices.
The survey, which included more female and younger-generation art buyers than previous studies, identified several emerging trends that played out prominently during the London-to-Paris art season. One of the most noticeable patterns involved imagined landscapes, as artists respond to current global uncertainties by creating escapist, surrealist works that offer alternatives to traditional narratives.
Swiss painter Nicolas Party exemplifies this trend with his bright, structured woodland scenes that dominated his sold-out gallery exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in London. Similarly, rising British artist Georg Wilson has gained attention for her detailed, heightened fairytale forests. Her work "Strange Pastoral" (2025), from the same series featured in her ongoing solo exhibition at Edinburgh's Jupiter Artland, sold quickly through Pilar Corrias at Art Basel Paris. Other imagined landscapes by artists Sholto Blissett and Pierre Knop also found immediate buyers.
This appetite for mystical and reimagined landscapes extended to auction houses, where Nordic art from the estate of Danish entrepreneur Ole Faarup performed strongly at Christie's. Works by Peter Doig, currently featured in a solo exhibition at the Serpentine, became highlights of London's auction season. According to Pilar Corrias, collectors are increasingly drawn to these reimagined landscapes as "spaces of escape and reflection" that offer alternatives to narratives focused on expansion and extraction.
Outsider art represents another area where the market allows for relative experimentation, particularly through works by self-taught and indigenous artists. At Frieze Masters, the Gallery of Everything achieved complete sell-out success with works by Madge Gill, including purchases by London's Tate Collection and National Portrait Gallery. The self-taught artist (1882-1961), who gained recent exposure through Grayson Perry's exhibition at the Wallace Collection, brings a compelling personal narrative to her work.
Born Maude Ethel Eades, Gill endured a difficult childhood and later turned to drawing while believing she was possessed by a spirit guide named Myrninerest. Her resulting works, primarily created in ink on card with some textiles, display intricate, obsessive, and heavily decorated characteristics. Many pieces function as self-portraits created under her spirit guide's influence, representing what gallery owner James Brett describes as "belief coming out of a brush." Brett notes that such spiritual elements have often been omitted from revived artists' narratives but are now finding receptive audiences who seek connection in an increasingly mechanized age.
Photography emerged as a particularly strong category this season, perhaps reflecting another reaction against rapid technological advances. Pace Gallery dedicated its entire Frieze Masters booth to US photographer Peter Hujar, known for documenting gay culture, and achieved six swift sales on opening day with prices ranging from $25,000 to $45,000. At Art Basel Paris, assemblages by Italian photographer Jacopo Benassi, featuring raw wood frames and elements like leather strapping, sold rapidly for between $7,500 and $12,000 through Mai 36 Galerie.
The Art Basel and UBS Global Collecting Survey confirmed photography's growing appeal, revealing that 44 percent of respondents purchased photographs between 2024 and 2025, a dramatic increase from just 16 percent in 2023. This shift partly reflects changing buyer demographics, as the survey found women spent more than double their male counterparts on photography, averaging $65,000 versus $30,000. Additionally, buyers under 60 allocated an average of 14 percent of their spending to photography, compared to only 3 percent from baby boomers aged 61 to 79.
While digital art also gained favor according to the survey, it remained largely absent from major brand fairs this season. However, Pace Gallery did present a mesmerizing new work of continuous crashing black and white waves at Art Basel Paris, created by Japanese collective teamLab, suggesting potential future growth in this category.
The "old is new" philosophy gained particular prominence, exemplified by Gagosian Gallery's bold decision to break Art Basel Paris's post-1900 rule by presenting a Peter Paul Rubens holy family scene from approximately 1611-1614. The gallery justified this inclusion by arguing that many contemporary in-demand artists reference historical masters, making the connection explicit through strategic booth arrangement.
Outside the booth, Gagosian displayed a new John Currin painting featuring three voluptuous women in a moonlit forest, emphasizing symbolic elements while demonstrating contemporary artists' historical references. Inside, opposite the Rubens, stood one of Jeff Koons's "gazing ball" works—a reflective blue sphere positioned before a replica of a Nicolas Poussin painting, creating direct dialogue between contemporary and baroque periods.
While prized old masters command substantial prices—the undisclosed Rubens price likely approaches the $7.1 million it achieved at auction in 2020—newer buyers find these valuations more comprehensible than some contemporary art pricing. Bernie Lagrange, director at Gagosian Art Advisory, explains that younger collectors, particularly those in West Coast technology sectors, often find contemporary art more opaque than historical works. "Knowing someone's biography and historic weight is often more approachable and comes with a story," Lagrange notes, adding that "art history is hanging on" despite market uncertainties.
This trend toward historical grounding reflects broader collector psychology during uncertain times, where institutional validation and established artistic narratives provide comfort against market volatility. The successful October season suggests that while the art market is indeed recovering, its trajectory emphasizes security over speculation, suggesting a fundamental shift in collector mentality that may define the market's direction for years to come.
