Art in Uncertain Times: Why mid-range offers Stability

The 2025 UBS Art Market Report confirms what many collectors have quietly recognised: the market is shifting away from speculation and back toward substance. After several years of runaway enthusiasm for ultra-contemporary art, 2024 saw a cooling at the top end with sales above £10 million falling sharply while activity in the mid-price range actually increased.

Putting categories aside the current market is now recognising that entry level art by the best artists, particularly pre contemporary is now where confidence resides, though that is not suggest that this has ever been absent. It’s where some of the most interesting and enduring opportunities can be found, particularly among well chosen works on paper, drawings and prints from the Old Masters through to the early decades of the twentieth century.

If we had to put a starting point on this then it might be £10,000. At that level we are very much in the ‘grown up’ category. It’s a bracket underpinned by a much wider and often more genuinely passionate clientele.

In uncertain times (though don’t times always seem to be uncertain?), art with true historical and aesthetic value tends to hold its ground. Such works have an inherent resilience: they are tangible, finite, and steeped in the tradition of connoisseurship rather than fashion, or if they are not in fashion, they will have been and will be again! A carefully selected drawing by a recognised hand or a fine print from a proven Modern Master offers not just visual pleasure but long-term security.

The UBS findings suggest that the market’s strength has migrated toward exactly these kinds of objects, pieces that combine quality, scholarship and accessibility. For both seasoned collectors and thoughtful newcomers, they represent a reassuring balance between passion and prudence.

In short, while the high-priced contemporary sector may continue to fluctuate and show significant correction, the quieter world of mid range remains a haven of stability and discernment, a reminder that true value lies not in novelty, but in depth, history and enduring craftsmanship.

John Henry Fuseli - Evening, thou bringest all, 1802 Pen-lithograph on Wove paper 234 x 317 mm