The Gen Z disruption. Georgina Adam on why the next generation of art collectors are upending everything

To celebrate the publication of Lund Humphries and Sotheby's Institute of Art's new book NextGen Collectors and the Art Market, museum and culture writer Maxwell Blowfield — aka maxwell museums — speaks to its author, Georgina Adam.

 

The art market is changing, and there are new sheriffs in town.

 

Gen Z have entered the chat, and the ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘who’ and even ‘how’ of their art collecting habits are vastly different from those of the generations before them. And it’s having profound impacts on auction houses, museums and even artists themselves. This disruption is only going to accelerate.

 

The shake up from the next generation — or NextGen — of art collectors is the latest subject explored in Lund Humphries’ Hot Topics in the Art World book series, published in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

 

Georgina Adam is a journalist and author who has covered the global art market for over 30 years. She’s also Editor at Large for The Art Newspaper. She’s now written an incisive — and rather eye-opening — new book for the Hot Topics series which deep-dives into the radically changing landscape of art collecting.

 

What jumps out at you when you read the book is that this isn’t just a question of evolving tastes. It’s a vast and complex global web of disruption, with links to technology, geo-politics and cultural identity.

 

And as I’m someone who reports on museums, I can see that the NextGen are already having an effect on our public institutions too.

 

So to find out more about just how far this disruption spans, I’ve spoken to Georgina to understand more about why she wanted to tackle this topic. Here we discuss the wealth fuelling the next generation, the role of social media, and whether the rise of the NextGen spells the end of the Old Masters.

 

 

Maxwell: Hello Georgina. So, why is the next generation of art collectors such a “hot topic?” 

 

Georgina: The NextGen are set to inherit an enormous amount of money through the Great Wealth Transfer. Estimates vary, but certainly in the tens of trillions will change hands.

Their tastes, influences and aims are very different from those of the previous generations, who accumulated quite astonishing wealth in real estate, stocks and shares — and art.

Many of their elders were patrons of museums or founded their own spaces. Will these new generations – millennials and GenZ — emulate them, will they even want to collect art in the same way as their parents and grandparents did? The answer will have a profound effect on the art market.

 

Who are the NextGen collectors?

 

You have to split NextGen collectors into subgroups.

There are those who come from a collecting background and who will inherit art. What will they do with it? We are already seeing collections coming to auction upon the death of their parents and grandparents. I am thinking of Paul Allen, Pritzker, Mnuchin etc.

 

Then there are those whose fortunes are self-made, and who are starting their collecting journey; their tastes and aims may be very different from “traditional” collectors. There are those in Asia, particularly, who see art as a store of value and will “place” some money in, say, Western art. And in my book, I quote interviewees who say that some Chinese collectors see art as a way of placing money outside the mainland.

 

One of the biggest shifts you’ve picked up is how identity is playing an increasingly dominant role in NextGen collecting. How is that upending collecting?

 

It’s a very significant shift, because the platforms for advertising one’s status, taste, access and wealth have changed.

 

Naming rights for museum rooms, for instance, was one way Boomers and the ‘Silent Generation’ presented their identity as philanthropists as well as their success. Or by establishing their own private museums. But for a younger generation, all that has changed.

 

For a start there is less trust in institutions, mainly government, police and the church, but even some museums have been dented by their accepting sponsorship from companies that younger generations may not approve of. I am thinking of BP or Sackler, and Extinction Rebellion. This is broad brush of course.

 

And what other new trends have you identified?

 

The things that interest and motivate NextGen collectors are very different from those of their elders. Again, these are all generalisations but to an older generation, climate change, notions of racial or gender identity, or sexual identity (LGBTQI+) were probably not on their radar at all.

 

They probably did not collect work by women artists or artists of colour, partly because the market itself was not offering as much as today.

 

The other trend is more cross-category collecting. An older generation might have focused on a period, a subject or a medium. Younger generations sometimes collect across the board, from older art to contemporary such as skateboards designed by a well-known artist.

 

So, is it the end of the road for the Old Masters?!

 

Well actually, much has been made of a return to the “tried and trusted” because of today’s uncertain world. And Old Masters have actually benefited, although not as much as some dealers would have you believe. Remember that this is a small market (11% of the total market, according to the UBS/Art Basel report for 2025, but it did grow by 2%) so a huge price, such as the $43.9m paid for Canaletto’s Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day (1731 to 1732) last year, can slightly skew results.

 

While this is a less volatile market than contemporary art, the same problems remain: attribution (which can change); condition (which is often not perfect) and subject matter (often religious, so not necessarily attractive to non-Christian audiences) and knowledge (who has heard of Parmigianino? — whereas everyone will recognise a Hirst spot painting or a KAWS doll).

 

Old Masters evening sale. Image courtesy of Sotheby's

Contemporary Art evening sale. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. © Julian Cassady Photography.

 

What do you think artists can learn from your book?

 

I think artists can learn about what the tastes of younger collectors are.

 

This does not mean that they should adapt what they are creating to these tastes, but they should at least look at the preoccupations of younger buyers.

 

One thing that emerged was that NextGen really liked becoming involved with artists, they liked getting to know them, going on studio visits, being part of the creative process etc. So artists could take account of this by making themselves available to younger audiences.

 

Also, the channels for reaching them have changed, and certainly they need to focus on social media. Although to be fair, I think most of them are already very savvy in this domain.

 

Why does the future of the art market — and its health — matter? What’s its role in a wider ecosystem?

 

The question is, what art market? It is not a monolith, but splits into different sectors, which respond to very different buyers. And supply is as important as demand.

 

We saw that at the very top — the $10m+ works of art — actually grew last year (up 40% in the USA). Buyers at this level are looking at art as a store of value, an asset class. There are a limited number of works of art at this level, and buyers are not necessarily NextGen.

 

It’s at the lower price levels where it is a more “genuine” market, in that buyers might actually want the art, not the investment potential.

 

A healthy art market supports creation and a host of other trades, from dealers to auctioneers, restorers, advisors and so on. And contemporary art in particular is a powerful force for bringing younger people into museums.

 

Your other Hot Topics book with Lund Humphries is on the rise of the private museum, where you chart how collectors are increasingly keen to control their collections and steward their legacy. Are the NextGen going to break with this upward trend?

 

Private museums are still being built and inaugurated as I write. I am thinking, for instance, of the mega Kiran Nadar museum in New Delhi, India, opening this year. But she is in her mid 70s, so a Boomer. It is too early to say if NextGen will build spaces to show their collections, but that distrust of institutions I found may very well mean they’ll want to control their collections by displaying them in their own spaces and not donating them.

 

However, I would say that what has also changed for the younger generation is the desire to own “stuff” – they do not necessarily accumulate in the way their parents or grandparents did, because they have other ways of showing identity, and often value experiences over possessions. Whether that will change as they age is, of course, another matter. Concern for the environment may also mean that they are less keen on acquisitions – but of course jetting off to luxury destinations so they can put it all on Insta is not very good for the environment either!

 

Will they, as they age, accumulate art in the same way as previous generations, and want to display it publicly? I cannot answer that question now.

 

So how will public museums need to adapt to the NextGen do you think?

 

Public museums need to take account of the “experiential” aspect of younger collectors’ tastes. They like experiences over ownership — and museums must respond.

 

Tate for example has a Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror Room which is very popular with visitors — I know that this was the first thing my American GenZ granddaughters asked to see on a trip to London. The various immersive experiences on offer around the world are generally very successful. Museums must also offer “Instagram friendly” exhibitions.

 

Finally, did your research give you any hint about what might even come after NextGen? What will the sequel to this book be in twenty years? Perhaps a difficult question!

 

Nothing so difficult as predicting the future!

 

The art market will endure, because artists will continue to create and buyers will want to support them, but at what price levels? Will Gen Alpha want to pay the sort of prices their great-grandparents paid? Will they want the same sort of art? Also, you have to look at the geo-political situation, and the market, like any market, is dependent on this. If there is a financial crisis then the art market will suffer along with the rest.

 

Twenty years is a long time, and the world is changing so fast. Will America continue its long decline, and China end up the dominant power in the world?

 

This could all definitely have a huge impact on the sort of art on offer. We will have to wait and see.

 

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Maxwell Blowfield writes about art and museums in his popular Substack newsletter maxwell museums, and at maxwellmuseums.com