Wealthy investors see a lucrative future in fine art

• Global fine art sales up to $4.6bn
• Demand follows suit in Middle East
• Sotheby’s Diriyah sale attracts interest

After several years in the doldrums, fine art sales at major global auction houses recovered last year.

Sales rose a tenth year on year to $4.6 billion in 2025, according to the Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index, buoyed by Impressionist art.

The shift is beginning to feed through into the Gulf, where rising wealth levels and a growing base of collectors are helping drive demand for regional and international works.

At Sotheby’s second Saudi auction in Diriyah in January, Coffee Shop in Madina Road by local artist Safeya Binzagr sold for $2.1 million, more than 10 times an already high estimate and the highest price ever achieved for a work sold at auction in the kingdom.

Sotheby’s press office

The sale nearly doubled the previous record for a Saudi artist, set in London in 2023 by Mohammed Al Saleem, showing growing international interest in Gulf artists and the region’s wider art market.

A Sotheby’s spokesperson told AGBI that a third of the lots in the Diriyah auction went to local buyers but the sale also attracted significant international participation.

“It is further proof that Saudi artists are entering global conversations around modern and contemporary art,” the spokesperson said.

For some investors, art is increasingly being viewed as a long-term, albeit volatile, store of value.

“For experienced investors, blue-chip art increasingly resembles the role prime real estate once played within legacy wealth portfolios, scarce, globally recognised and capable of preserving intergenerational wealth,” said Sandeep Jadwani, head of investment advisory at Dubai-based H Capital.

But others warn that the market remains highly specialised and illiquid.

“Unless you really are an expert, investing in art, and getting it right, is hard,” said Keren Bobker, partner at Holborn Assets, also based in Dubai. “Unless you have $20 million or more to drop on an old master.”

The wealth report is based on the habits of high net worth individuals – someone with a net worth of $1 million or more – and ultra high net worth individuals, whose wealth exceeds $30 million.

The Middle East accounts for just over 4 percent of the global billionaire population, according to the report. But the number of ultra high net worth individuals in the region is expected to increase by a third between 2026 and 2031, the second largest behind the US. Saudi Arabia’s billionaire population is forecast to nearly triple in the next five years.

While art rediscovered its mojo among the millionaires and billionaires, investment in high-end whiskey took a tumble. Sales were down almost 11 percent year on year, making it one of the weakest-performing collectible asset classes of 2025, albeit after a decade in which investment in the spirit more than doubled.

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New investment sectors are gaining traction, including vintage haute couture, rare fossils and fractional ownership platforms, which are successfully opening up luxury collectibles to a younger demographic, according to the index.

Hichem Djouhri, senior executive officer, at Dubai-based ASB Capital, told AGBI younger investors “who came of age during and after the global financial crisis” are leading the switch towards alternative assets.

“Their appetite for alternatives feels less like a trend and more like a permanent recalibration of regional investor culture,” Djouhri said.