Kelly Crow

You do get the feeling that they're still just sort of testing the field of what do the younger buyers want and how kooky do they want to be.

It's just been interesting to see how when broader economic issues pop up, like fears about tariffs or changes in political situations or even war, it's just distracting for the wealthy people who sort of enjoy collecting art on the side.

And so I think it's really been an issue of both just being distracted by other fears and worries and also just now sort of feeling like things have steadied, that they're just no longer as worried.

And so they can sort of go back to having fun and buying art.

I think it's fascinating.

So you do see some interesting generational shifts happening.

Baby boomers and, to a greater extent, Gen X are kind of setting the tone and the taste at the upper reaches of the market.

But collectors under 40 now represent like a quarter of Sotheby's bidders across art and luxury.

And a third of Christie's buyers are like Gen Z or millennials.

So you do get this sense that younger collectors are coming in and they don't always tend to buy what their parents and their older friends bought.

They kind of are determining their own taste.

So many of them come in through watches or handbags, luxury items, wine, and then they sort of double down.

I mean, some of the younger ones at Christie's this last year spent twice as much as they initially did, but they didn't necessarily buy the same thing.

So they're having fun and sort of

exploring across all these different categories.

I think the houses are still trying to figure out what the kids want, right?

Like they're noticing that they really are going after some novelty items.

They really like collectible cars, but they don't necessarily want Rothko and Bacon and some of the artists who were really setting the tone.

I think you're going to see more efforts for the houses to expand into like the Middle East,

Beyond just the sovereign wealth funds that have sort of dominated that bidding, but they really want to like the everyday person in Abu Dhabi who's wealthy, like what are they buying?