Art investment is possible, but art is a costly, illiquid asset with no income, and the market’s own figures show uneven results. Global art sales were an estimated US$59.6bn in 2025, up 4% after two years of decline but still below their 2022 peak, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026. Buyer’s premiums, sellers’ commissions, the artist’s resale right, insurance and storage all come out of any gain, and capital gains tax can apply to works sold for more than £6,000.
The market in numbers
The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, the 10th edition, written by Dr Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics and published in March 2026, describes itself as a benchmark report for the industry. Its figures measure sales, not investment returns.
| Measure (2025) | Value | Change on 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Global art sales | US$59.6bn | Up 4% |
| Dealer sales | US$34.8bn | Up 2% |
| Public auction sales | US$20.7bn | Up 9% |
| Private sales reported by auction houses | Just under US$4.2bn | Down 5% |
| Number of transactions | 41.5 million | Up 2% |
| UK sales | US$10.5bn (18% of the global market) | Up 2% |
| Online sales | US$9.2bn | Down, to the lowest level since 2019 |
The growth was concentrated at the top. The value of fine art lots sold at auction for more than US$1m rose 21%, and sales above US$10m grew 30%. Below US$50,000, both the value and the number of lots sold fell by 2%. The US held 44% of global sales by value, the UK 18% and China 14%. Past performance is not a guide to future returns, and a rising market total says nothing about how an individual work will sell.
What it costs to buy and sell
Transaction costs in art are high compared with listed investments, and they are charged on both sides.
- Buyer’s premium: auction houses add a percentage charge to the hammer price, at rates each house sets for itself.
- Seller’s commission: the auction house or dealer takes a share of the sale price, plus charges such as photography, catalogue entries and insurance while the work is consigned.
- Dealer margins: a gallery’s price includes its margin, which is not usually disclosed.
- Ownership costs: insurance, storage, conservation, framing, valuation and authentication.
Fee scales differ between auction houses and change from time to time, so we do not quote ranges here: read the conditions of sale for the house you use, and ask for an all-in estimate of buying and selling costs before you bid or consign.
The artist’s resale right
One cost is set by law. The artist’s resale right entitles artists to a royalty each time a work is resold through an auction house or art market professional, for the artist’s lifetime and 70 years after death. It applies when the sale price is £1,000 or more and is capped at £12,500 per sale. Since 1 April 2024 the thresholds have been set in pounds.
| Portion of the resale price | Royalty |
|---|---|
| Up to £50,000 | 4% |
| £50,000.01 to £200,000 | 3% |
| £200,000.01 to £350,000 | 1% |
| £350,000.01 to £500,000 | 0.5% |
| Above £500,000 | 0.25% |
The scale works in slices, like income tax: the government’s worked example gives a royalty of £6,500 on a work resold for £200,000. Sales between private individuals without an art market professional, and sales to non-profit public museums, do not attract the royalty, and the royalty itself is exempt from VAT.
Tax: the chattels rules
For UK individuals, a painting is a chattel, a personal possession, for capital gains tax. HMRC’s guidance on personal possessions says you may have to pay CGT on a gain when you sell a possession for £6,000 or more, and names paintings, antiques, jewellery and coins and stamps among them. Special rules apply when several similar items, or the parts of a set, are sold (CG76573).
- Sale for £6,000 or less: no chargeable gain on a single item.
- Sale for £6,000 to £15,000: the taxable gain is capped at the amount by which the proceeds exceed £6,000, multiplied by 1.667, if that is lower than the actual gain.
- Loss: if you sell for less than £6,000, the loss is worked out as though you had sold for £6,000.
- Deductible costs: fees such as valuation and advertising, and costs of improving the item, but not repairs.
As at 9 October 2026 the annual exempt amount is £3,000, and gains from 6 April 2026 are taxed at 18% within the basic-rate band and 24% above it. Art cannot be held in an ISA. In an investment-regulated pension scheme, HMRC’s Pensions Tax Manual treats art, antiques and classic cars as taxable property, which triggers tax charges. Inheritance tax rules are outside the scope of this piece.
Liquidity: why selling is the hard part
A listed share has a price every second the market is open; a painting has a price only when someone buys it. The FCA’s guide to unregulated collective investment schemes, published on 10 July 2026, makes the point directly: obscure assets trade far less often than shares, perhaps at an art auction, and their valuations may rest on subjective opinion or recent sales of similar items.
That has three consequences for an investor. A valuation is an opinion until a sale proves it. A sale takes time to arrange, through consignment, cataloguing and the auction calendar. And the market’s depth varies by price band: on the Art Basel and UBS figures, the bottom of the auction market shrank in 2025 while the top grew. Selling through a dealer avoids the auction process, but the dealer’s margin comes out of what you receive.
Fractional art schemes and their risks
Fractional schemes sell shares in a single work, or in a pool of works, so investors can take a smaller stake. The legal structure matters more than the art. The FCA says a pooled arrangement in which several people contribute money can be a collective investment scheme, and if it is not authorised by the FCA it is an unregulated collective investment scheme. The FCA says anyone investing in one should be prepared to lose all their money, that such schemes are typically high-risk products that cannot be promoted to ordinary investors, and that they have no duty to give accurate performance information.
The FCA added fine art to its list of unregulated investments used in scams in November 2024. Before buying into any fractional scheme, ask:
- Who legally owns the work, and is it held by a separate company or trustee that would survive the operator’s failure?
- Who insures and stores it, and where?
- Is the firm on the FCA Firm Checker with permission for what it is doing?
- How do you get out: is there a secondary market, a fixed sale date, or only the operator’s discretion?
- What are the fees on entry, each year and on the final sale, and who decides when to sell?
Where art fits
Art sits with whisky, wine and watches as a passion asset: often bought for enjoyment, and with a record of scams built on that appeal. Our report on whisky casks shows how the same unregulated structure has been abused, and our guide to spotting an investment scam sets out the checks. For how illiquid holdings fit alongside liquid ones, see our guide to a diversified portfolio, and for another physical asset with clearer tax rules, our guide to investing in gold.
