The youngest wealthy collectors in the art market are also its most enthusiastic spenders, the latest Survey of Global Collecting from Art Basel and UBS finds. The report, compiled by Arts Economics and authored by its founder Clare McAndrew, polled 3,100 high-net-worth individuals, each holding at least one million dollars in personal wealth outside property and private business assets. Gen Z respondents, defined as those aged 20 to 29, made up just nine percent of the sample, yet reported the highest average fine-art spending in 2025 and the first half of 2026. The numbers are striking. In 2025, Gen Z collectors spent an average of 347,460 dollars on art, up 19 percent on the previous year and more than double the average outlay of any older generation. Across the whole sample, average fine-art spending was 124,265 dollars, up 13 percent. Their average expenditure in the first half of 2026 alone already exceeded their full-year 2025 total. Only one percent of surveyed collectors bought a work priced above one million dollars in the period covered, but Gen Z buyers accounted for nearly half of that group. The findings carry important caveats. The Gen Z collectors surveyed are a small group of exceptionally wealthy young people, many with family money, whose behaviour does not describe typical buyers their age. Thirty-seven percent said their wealth came primarily from family sources, against 15 percent of respondents overall. The report cites UBS estimates that more than 83 trillion dollars will transfer between generations over the next two decades, with almost 90 percent passing to younger generations. The survey also tracks a shift toward risk aversion: after 66 percent of collectors bought work by an unfamiliar artist in 2025, a five-year high, the figure fell to 45 percent in 2026, the lowest in five years. Gen Z bucked the trend, with 56 percent buying an unfamiliar artist's work, compared with 36 percent of Boomers. Sixty-nine percent of collectors bought directly from artists, more than double the 2024 level, though galleries remain the dominant channel at 87 percent, with two-thirds of dealer-preferring buyers now interacting remotely.