The auction market for fine art has recovered, but the primary market hasn't shared in the improvement. These and other points come from a new report from Bank of America Private Bank.

Only 36 per cent of wealthy Americans looking to build a significant art collection now cite asset appreciation as a main motive, down from half two years ago, a study shows.

Wealthy Americans are less likely to treat art as an investment, even as auction sales recover strongly, according to a mid-year art market review from Bank of America Private Bank.

Among respondents interested in building a significant collection, 36 per cent cited asset appreciation as a primary motivation, down from 50 per cent two years earlier. That was the largest decline of any category. Aesthetic appeal (61 per cent) and supporting artists (40 per cent) were cited more often. The findings come from the bank’s Study of Wealthy Americans, a biannual survey of more than 1,400 people aged 21 and over with at least $3 million in investible assets.

The shift follows weaker returns. The bank’s 2026 US Art Market Report found that average annualized resale returns at auction have fallen steadily over the past four years.

The state of the fine art market can be an indicator of what HNW people think of investment and financial conditions more broadly, revealing their optimism and fears, for example. The sector can be presented as a refuge from inflation, although data is far from conclusive. For example, a study in Applied Economics in April 2025, using quarterly art price and consumer price data from 1998 to mid-2023, found that in France art is an effective long-term hedge, but in the US and UK it provides no hedge in either the short or long term. A 2024 paper in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management, covering US data from 1992 to 2023, found a negative long-run relationship between art and inflation, although unexpected inflation correlated positively with art returns.

Auctions
Auction volumes have recovered, the BoA figures show. Sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips totaled $6.8 billion in the first half of 2026, up 70 per cent year-on-year and the highest first-half figure since 2022. Sotheby’s private sales rose 52 per cent to a record $826 million, while Christie’s private sales exceeded $1 billion. Single-owner sales drove the top end, including the $631 million collection of S I Newhouse in New York and Joe Lewis’s collection, which raised $393 million in London without a guarantee.

Source: Bank Of America Private Bank: Art Market Update – Fall 2026

The primary market has not shared the recovery. Pace said over the summer that it would drop roughly 50 artists from its roster, citing an “unfixable” business model. Auction sales of Impressionist and Modern art rose 133 per cent in the first half, while Young Contemporary art is down 88 per cent from its 2022 peak. Dealers still account for more than half of global art sales.

Ownership remains concentrated. Some 42 per cent of individuals with more than $25 million in investible assets own an art collection, against 18 per cent of affluent respondents overall. Wealthy Gen Z and Millennial respondents were more than three times as likely to collect as Boomers and the Silent Generation, and 94 per cent of them own some form of collectible, with watches and jewelry being the most common.

Among those holding at least $1 million in art, 64 per cent use an art advisor and a further 13 per cent would like to. Bank of America launched an Art Consulting service this year, alongside its art lending, consignment and trust and estate planning offerings.

Succession is a weak point. While 83 per cent of collectors with $1 million or more in art consider it important to pass works to heirs, only 67 per cent of those expecting to inherit art plan to keep it. Museums, facing storage and stewardship costs, are also growing more selective about accepting gifts. The bank said that if younger collectors’ tastes diverge meaningfully from those of earlier generations, established segments of the market could face significant repricing.