Representation of female artists is increasing. The Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 by Art Economics reveals that gender diversity of artists within galleries directly impacted the aggregate turnover of sales.

Since 2018, the share of sales that dealers made from female artists’ works has risen substantially, approaching an even split with male artists. High-net-worth individuals spending over $10M devote a larger share to female artists.

Sales at auction houses fell 20% in 2024 to $23.4B, their lowest level since 2020. Correlation? Only three female artists were in the top 50 lots sold at auction across all sectors in 2024, and 20 female artists in the top 200.

United States remained the leading global art market with 43% of

sales by value. UK, the world’s second largest art market, had 18%.

Art fair sales increased slightly to 31% of total dealer sales, up by

2% from 2023 but still below pre-pandemic levels of 42% in 2019.

All segments of the NFT market declined in value in 2024, with art

down 65% and collectibles down 43%. Crypto values grew notably.

Yayoi Kusama

Despite the global art market sales decline by 12% in 2024 to $57.5B, the volume of transactions increased 3% to 40.5 million, with robust activity in purchasing affordable art. Cultural policy has shaped a ‘zero-sum world’.

Amidst an untenable comparison to post-pandemic surging sales of 2021 and 2022, spending styles shifted with new economic influences affray. The next generation of collectors are skewing art fairs to a younger demographic.

Growing evidence shows female artists who enter the primary market account for a greater proportion of sales. While still a minority, representation of female artists by dealers steadily increased in primary and secondary markets.