Sunday evenings have this particular quality of pessimism, don’t they? That Sunday scares feeling when the week ahead looms with all its uncertainties. It was during one of these contemplative moments — after watching Star Trek with my husband…because we’re nerds and proud of it — that recent conversations and news stories crystallized into an uncomfortable question: Is the art industry dying?
The comparison that struck me was to the Aldeans from Star Trek’s “When the Bough Breaks” — a civilization so focused on artistic perfection that they lost their ability to sustain themselves. They created beautiful art and music, but their reliance on technology ultimately made them unable to continue their species naturally. They were literally dying out because they could no longer reproduce, and, in a moment of utter despair, they decided to kidnap the children from Starfleet’s Enterprise and try and bring them up in the Aldean tradition in hopes of continuing their species. Sound familiar?
But before we start panic-buying art supplies or updating our CVs, let’s examine what’s actually happening beneath the dramatic headlines. Because the reality is far more complex — and arguably more interesting — than simple decline.
When Numbers Tell Stories We Don’t Want to Hear
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: the data reads like a medical chart for a patient in serious decline. The Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report reveals that global art sales plummeted 12% to $57.5 billion in 2024, and some of the major markets, including the US, UK, and European have been on a downward spiral since the pandemic. Not exactly the trajectory we were hoping for.
But here’s where it gets interesting (and by interesting, I mean concerning): while total sales value cratered, the same report shows that transaction volumes actually increased 3% to 40.5 million.² Translation? More people are buying art, but they’re spending less money. Meanwhile, the report notes that 44% of buyers in 2024 were new to the art market, suggesting the market is expanding at the bottom while contracting at the top.
The auction sector tells an even starker story. The Art Basel data shows that works selling for over $10 million declined 39% in 2024. When your supposedly hottest market segment loses more than two-thirds of its value in a single year, that’s not a correction — that’s a reckoning.
However, there is a glimmer of hope. As the Art Basel report proclaims:
While 2024 brought a downturn for nearly all segments, the market under $5,000 grew in both value (by 7%) and number of lots sold (by 13%). Given that this segment contributes such a large proportion of lot numbers to the market, this meant that despite the significant downturn, more sales took place in 2024, with a 6% increase in fine art auction volumes across the entire market, driven by the addition of thousands of new transactions, but at much lower levels than previous years.
So there were more sales (more volume) at lower price points on average. All this combine points to new, perhaps younger crowds looking to buy art, but at more affordable prices.
The Great Gallery Exodus
If you needed visual evidence of industry strain, just look at the gallery closure announcements that have become as regular as Venice Biennale previews. According to reports from Artnet News, New York alone witnessed at least 13 major gallery closures in 2023-2024, including institutions that operated for decades. We’re talking about Cheim & Read (26 years), Alexander & Bonin (28 years), and the prestigious Marlborough Gallery (78 years). When galleries with nearly a century of operation start shuttering, something fundamental has shifted.
London’s scene suffered similarly, with FOLD Gallery entering voluntary liquidation due to “mounting historic debts, pandemic fallout, Brexit, inflation and a general downturn in sales,” as The Art Newspaper reported. Artnet News documented that Los Angeles — arguably the art world’s most optimistic outpost — saw multiple galleries close in recent months, including high-profile operations.
The economics are brutal. Industry analysis indicates that art fair participation now costtens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, including booth fees, shipping, and accommodation. When surviving means spending more on overhead than on discovering and supporting artists, something is fundamentally broken.
When Titans Leave the Building (And Museums Start Acting Like Corporations)
But perhaps the most disheartening indicator comes from the people themselves — the titans of our industry who are quietly making major career shifts out of the arts entirely. I can’t mention names (and won’t), but learning that one particular figure I deeply respect has decided to pivot away from the art world hit me harder than any market report. It was actually seeing this news on Sunday evening that got me thinking about this whole crisis in the first place. When the people who’ve dedicated their careers to making art accessible and meaningful start looking for the exits, that says something profound about the sustainability of our industry.
Beyond these personal departures, the conversations I can’t fully detail tell their own story — like the one with a major news company director who confided that people under 60 simply don’t click on arts and culture content, even when positioned prominently on their homepage. Or the multiple reporters who’ve mentioned being understaffed for cultural coverage. Or the anecdotal evidence from every gallerist, artist, museum worker, and nonprofit professional I’ve spoken with recently: everyone is underfunded and frustrated.
Museum layoffs compound the crisis in ways that would make even Donald Kuspit’s concerns about “The End of Art” seem quaint — at least he was worried about artistic quality, not basic institutional survival. Artnet News reported that the Brooklyn Museum laid off more than 40 staff members amid a $10 million budget deficit. The Art Newspaper documented that the Guggenheim Museum laid off 20 employees in recent cuts. When cultural institutions start resembling corporate restructuring announcements, we’ve moved beyond normal market fluctuations.
Yet here’s the shift that makes this whole situation more complex than simple decline: the Art Basel report shows that online art sales reached $11.8 billion in 2023, growing 7% year-over-year despite overall market contraction. Meanwhile, the same Art Basel data reveals that 85% of dealer sales in 2024 occurred under $50,000. The market isn’t disappearing — it’s democratizing.
The Aldean Parallel (And Why It Actually Gives Us Hope)
Like the Aldeans, our art world became obsessed with a kind of perfection — or at least the appearance of it. We built an ecosystem dependent on mega-collectors, ultra-high-value transactions, and exclusive access. We created beautiful art and impressive institutions, but somewhere along the way, we lost touch with sustainable practices and genuine audience development. The current crisis isn’t necessarily about the death of art; it’s about the unsustainability of an industry structure that prioritized spectacle over substance.
The good news? Unlike the fictional Aldeans, we’re recognizing the problem before complete cultural sterility sets in. The market is expanding at accessible price points, attracting new collectors, and proving that sustainability doesn’t require seven-figure sales.
The industry isn’t dying — it’s being forced to evolve. The galleries, museums, and institutions that navigate this transition successfully will emerge stronger in a more sustainable, broadly-based art economy. Sometimes creative destruction really is creative, even when it’s terrifying to live through. The question isn’t whether we’ll survive this crisis, but whether we’ll use it to build something better.
And honestly? Given the alternative of continuing to “kidnap” audiences rather than cultivating them naturally — to extend that Star Trek metaphor just a bit further — this transformation might be exactly what we needed. The art world’s future lies not in returning to unsustainable highs, but in creating genuine, lasting connections between art and the people who experience it.
That’s not the end of art. That’s art finally growing up.
What’s your take on the current state of the industry? Are we witnessing necessary evolution or genuine crisis? Drop me a line — I’d love to hear from those of you living through this transition firsthand.
Sources:
- Art Basel and UBS, “The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2025,” accessed June 9, 2025, https://www.artbasel.com/stories/the-art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2025.
- “A Hard Look at the Tumultuous New York Gallery Scene, as Dealers Shutter and Move,” Artnet News, accessed June 16, 2025, https://news.artnet.com/market/a-hard-look-at-the-tumultuous-new-york-gallery-scene-as-dealers-shutter-and-move-2494448.
- “‘The tank is empty’: Brexit, inflation and a downturn in sales force FOLD gallery in London to close,” The Art Newspaper, June 10, 2023, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/08/23/fold-gallery-london-closes-brexit-inflation-downturn-sales.
- “The L.A. Art Scene Was Booming. Why Are Galleries Suddenly Closing?” Artnet News, accessed June 16, 2025, https://news.artnet.com/market/los-angeles-gallery-closures-2561378.
- “How Much Art Fairs Really Cost, According to Small Galleries,” Artsy, accessed June 16, 2025, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-fairs-cost-small-galleries.
- “Brooklyn Museum to Cut Jobs Amid $10 Million Budget Deficit,” Artnet News, accessed June 16, 2025, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/brooklyn-museum-layoffs-budget-deficit-2606781.
- “Guggenheim Museum lays off 20 employees,” The Art Newspaper, June 16, 2025, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/02/28/guggenheim-museum-layoffs-20-employees.
- “The Artsy Gallery Report 2024,” Artsy, accessed June 15, 2025, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artsy-gallery-report-2024.