Kelly Crow

The Met has strong holdings in so many areas, but they don't have huge holdings in modern art, particularly German and Austrian art, in part because basically Ron Lauder bought it all over the years.

And so he has this trove of really iconic pieces by Klimt and Kirchner and Schiele, and The Met has always probably lusted over those pieces.

And then for...

The Lauder family, it's an elegant solution to what to do with their space.

And now the Met can take it over and very importantly, keep it intact, similar to what they did with the Rockefeller's medieval collection at the Cloisters.

Keep it sort of this distinct identity.

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