If the old hierarchy of collecting ran from paintings to sculptures to—perhaps—design objects, Gen Z has upended that pyramid. The data collected is in Art Basel and UBS’s 2025 Global Collection SurveyReleased on Thursday, it’s revealed that this generation’s art, sneakers, digital assets and designs exist in a seamless continuum, as much a portfolio of identities as a portfolio of investments.
The report shows that Gen Z collectors allocate the highest percentage of their total wealth to art and collectibles: 26%, more than any other generation. Of these, they spend 56% on collectibles, far exceeding the 41% average among all high-net-worth individuals.
Their shopping carts look less like museum catalogs and more like lifestyle listings: limited-edition sneakers, luxury handbags, cars, watches and sports assets sit side by side with digital and generative artwork. The report’s authors note that while high-net-worth baby boomers spend the most on fine art, antiques and watches, and millennials dominate jewelry, decorative arts and design, Gen Z dominates most other areas, including luxury collectible handbags, collectible sneakers (“nearly five times the level of any other generational group,” the report says), classic cars, boats, jets and sports memorabilia.
This flattening of categories reflects what the report’s preface calls “the broadening of definitions of connoisseurship, with art increasingly coexisting alongside design, luxury and lifestyle collectibles.” Rather than curating discrete genres, Gen Z collects across mediums and markets—reflecting their Catholic tastes and digital fluency.
When asked what they planned to buy next, 41% of Gen Z collectors said antiques, 40% jewelry, and about a third planned to purchase watches, design pieces, and collectible wine or spirits. Even decorative arts and design – once considered a minor category – have seen renewed interest, with purchase intentions more than doubling among the two youngest age groups.
Digital art has moved from the fringe to the foundation. Among high-net-worth collectors planning to purchase art in the next 12 months, paintings remain the top choice (48%), followed by sculpture (37%). Gen Z collectors show the strongest interest in the latter – 40% plan to purchase sculptures, a higher rate than Gen X or Millennials.
While demand for paintings and sculptures has stabilized year on year, interest in most other categories (works on paper, prints and photography) has declined. The only exception is digital art: 23% of collectors planning to buy this year want to acquire digital works, up from 19% in 2024, with this share climbing to 26% among Gen Z collectors.
Within overall collections, digital works now account for an average 13% share of collections, a sharp rebound from 3% in 2024, driven by renewed interest in generative and artificial intelligence-based art.
Crucially, digital art ownership skews towards young people and women – 32% of Gen Z women own at least one digital artwork, compared to 49% of Gen X women. This tilt signals not a speculative renaissance but a generational comfort with virtual ownership.
What ties these different categories together is attitude. Gen Z’s approach to collecting is social, performative, and self-referential. For young collectors, art seems to be increasingly social and performative – it’s part of their expression of taste and identity, rather than just something to hang on a wall or keep in a freeport.
Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, wrote in the report’s introduction: “For many people, collecting has become an expression of identity, influenced by personal pleasure and social connection as much as financial motivation.” The report’s sales channel data confirms this: 51% of collectors purchased a work through Instagram without seeing the work in person, and 35% purchased a work directly through an Instagram link.
This is the real disruption: the ground zero of collecting is moving from the white cube to the feed. Of course, art fairs are still important, but identity is unfolding across platforms and ownership is becoming a content in its own right.
Future viewers of the art market don’t seem to see the line between a Murakami print and a pair of limited-edition Nike Dunks; both are cultural icons with emotional, social and economic value.
As the report makes clear, Gen Z’s hybrid model—part investor, part curator, part influencer—may be the first real paradigm shift since globalization reshaped the market two decades ago. What happens next may not be the democratization of collections, but the virtualization of collections.
