The Role of Art & Antique Dealers An Added Value CHAPTER 6. ART BUYERS
Art collectors are central to all dealers’ businesses, yet this title refers to a group of people who are varied in terms of their goals, backgrounds and influence. To better understand the motivations of collectors and how they interact with dealers and in the art market generally, a survey of collectors was undertaken as outlined in Chapter 1. Although the sample used does not purport to represent a scientifically significant representation of the global population of collectors (which is itself virtually impossible to define with precision), the poll offers a descriptive snapshot of collectors in some of the major art markets and some valuable insights into their views on dealers.
6.1 Key Demographics
The survey’s respondents covered a broad range of collecting interests from Contemporary fine art to antiques and collectibles. Although all of the collectors had distinct interests in certain categories, most respondents collected art and antiques in more than one sector. Some 16% collected fine art only, 38% collected decorative art and antiques only, but the most common pattern (46% of the total) was to collect some combination of fine and decorative art and antiques. Most collectors also showed long-term commitment to the categories in which they collected, with over 90% reporting that they intended to collect in the same fields in future. For the remaining 10%, the most common reasons to change were to diversify out of a sector that they had become overinvested in or to simply leave themselves open to how their tastes and preferences may evolve over time.
As noted in Chapter 3, there is a tendency for collectors in some sectors to fall predominantly into older age groups. Collectors in the survey had engaged in collecting art and antiques for between two and 60 years, with an overall average of 30 years. Their age ranges are given in Figure 8, which shows that the largest age category is between 45 and 64 years, while over 80% of the sample is over 45 years, and 24% of those are 65 or older.
Figure 8. Age Profile of Collectors
65 and over 24%
45-64 years 58%
Under 35 years 7%
© Arts Economics 2011
35-44 years 11%
Historical & Future Perspectives 49
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