Perspectives on art,
markets, and collecting.

When Frieze launched its Seoul edition in September 2022, in partnership with the long-standing local fair Kiaf, many in the Western art world saw it as an ambitious experiment. Three years later, it looks less like an experiment and more like a structural shift. The South Korean art market has become a fixture in the global calendar, and for collectors, advisors, and institutions operating across Asia and Europe, understanding its mechanics is no longer optional.

From regional fair to global stage

Frieze Seoul's fourth edition in September 2025 drew over 80,000 visitors from 48 countries, including representatives from more than 160 leading museums and institutions worldwide. The week's headline sale, a triptych by American artist Mark Bradford placed by Hauser and Wirth for $4.5 million, was the most expensive work ever sold at Frieze Seoul, surpassing the previous year's record. These are not the numbers of a market finding its footing. They are the numbers of a market that has already found it.

What makes Seoul distinctive is not simply the presence of blue-chip galleries, though Gagosian, White Cube, Thaddaeus Ropac, and others now maintain a permanent presence in the city. It is the density of what surrounds them. Seoul has over 500 museums and galleries, 100 of which are concentrated in the capital. Neighbourhoods like Samcheong-dong, Hannam-dong, and Cheongdam-dong function as self-contained art ecosystems, each with a distinct character and collector base. The city is not hosting an international art fair each September. It is absorbing one into an already living, breathing cultural infrastructure.

The new Korean collector

What has changed most profoundly in recent years is the collector base. The growth of the South Korean art market is being driven by a new generation: younger, internationally educated, and approaching collecting as both cultural engagement and long-term investment. Unlike the speculation-driven buying that inflated certain segments of the market during 2021 and 2022, this cohort tends to be more selective and patient. They research extensively, travel to fairs across Europe and Asia, and make decisions with a longer horizon in mind.

Korean collectors have also become increasingly active internationally. Buying from collectors based in South Korea across 20th century and contemporary art sales at major international houses increased dramatically in the post-pandemic years, and that appetite has not fully retreated even as the domestic market has faced headwinds. A brief period of political uncertainty following December 2024's martial law declaration dampened sentiment temporarily, but by the time Frieze Seoul 2025 opened, serious buyers were back and focused.

South Korea's place in the Asia-Europe bridge

For European collectors and advisors looking at Asia, Seoul offers something that other major Asian cities currently do not: accessibility, transparency, and a genuine cultural conversation that spans East and West. Korean institutions, from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to the private foundations attached to Amorepacific, Samsung, and Hyundai, have become serious lenders and acquirers on the international stage. They collect across categories, including Korean Dansaekhwa, Japanese Mono-ha, international contemporary, and increasingly Western modern works.

From my position, based in Seoul and working between Asia and Europe, the dynamic runs in both directions. Asian collectors navigating the London and Milan markets need a trusted point of contact who understands both the works and the ecosystem. European collectors entering the Korean market need someone who can move through it with confidence and established relationships. Seoul, more than any other Asian city right now, sits at that intersection naturally.

What to watch in 2026

The South Korean art market faces real challenges. Domestic sales contracted nearly 29% in 2024, more than the global average, and not all galleries reported recovery at Kiaf and Frieze in 2025. Prices at the lower end remain compressed. But the structural story, the institutions, the collector development, the fair infrastructure, and the cultural weight of the city itself, points firmly toward long-term significance rather than a passing moment. For anyone building a serious collection with an eye on Asia, Seoul is no longer somewhere to visit. It is somewhere to know.

The tenth edition of the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, was released on 12 March 2026. It is a serious piece of research: 247 pages drawing on dealer surveys across nearly 60 markets, auction data from over 4,000 houses globally, and a decade of longitudinal tracking. I read it carefully. And my overall view is this: the report confirms a genuine, if modest, turning point, while being admirably honest about how much uncertainty remains.

The headline number: $59.6 billion

Global art sales grew 4% year-on-year to an estimated $59.6 billion in 2025. After two consecutive years of decline following the 2022 peak of $68.1 billion, this is a welcome shift in direction. But the report is clear-eyed about its limits: the market remains 9% below its 2023 level, and 7% below where it stood a decade earlier in 2015. This is not a boom. It is a stabilisation with real momentum at the top end.

The driver of that momentum matters. Public auction sales surged 9%, buoyed by exceptionally high-value supply, including the Leonard A. Lauder Collection sale at Sotheby's New York, which totalled $527.5 million, and Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which sold for $236.4 million, the second-highest price ever achieved at auction. The value of fine art works sold for over $10 million in the US increased by nearly 40%. Meanwhile, dealer sector sales grew just 2%, and private sales at auction houses actually declined by 5%. The recovery is real, but it is concentrated.

The private versus public sales dynamic

This shift away from private sales is one of the most telling signals in the report. In uncertain markets, sellers prefer private transactions: pricing control, discretion, no risk of a public buy-in. That is what happened in 2024, when private sales rose 14% against a decline of 25% in public auctions. In 2025, the reversal tells us that sellers feel confident enough to take the room again, trusting that competitive bidding will push prices above their estimates. For a collector watching market psychology, that is a meaningful signal of returning vendor confidence at the high end.

South Korea: a data point worth noting

The report confirms that South Korea posted gains of 6% in 2025, while most Asian markets outside China had mixed results. Japan, which had bucked the declining trend in 2024, saw values fall 1%. China itself edged up just over 1%, with Mainland auction sales picking up while Hong Kong contracted. Against this backdrop, South Korea's 6% growth is notable. It aligns with what I observe on the ground in Seoul: a collector base that is more selective, more internationally connected, and more resilient than the headline domestic auction data sometimes suggests.

The return of the art fair

Art fair sales reached 35% of dealer turnover in 2025, their highest level since 2022. Online sales, by contrast, fell to $9.2 billion, their lowest level since 2019. The share of online-only sales dropped to 15% of total market value, down from a pandemic peak of 25%. The report is careful to note that online and in-person channels are not in competition: online now functions primarily as a complement to in-person sales, especially at lower price levels. But the direction of travel is clear. The physical experience of art, in a fair booth, a gallery, or a private viewing, is where the meaningful transactions happen. This is something I believe deeply, and the data supports it.

Tariffs, geopolitics, and the cost of complexity

The report dedicates significant space to the regulatory environment, and I think this is where it is most prescient. US tariff policy in 2025 created genuine disruption for the art trade, even where fine art itself remained largely exempt under Chapter 97 of the harmonised tariff schedule. The indirect effects, increased shipping and insurance costs, administrative burdens, customs delays, and a general discouragement of cross-border sales, were widely reported by dealers. Decorative arts and functional objects faced full tariff exposure, with objects from the EU subject to rates of around 30% at various points in 2025.

For my clients moving art between Asia and Europe, the implications are practical. The administrative complexity of cross-border transactions is rising, not falling. This is one of the reasons that having an experienced advisor who knows both sides of the transaction, who understands provenance documentation, shipping logistics, and the regulatory landscape in multiple jurisdictions, is becoming more valuable rather than less.

The outlook: cautious optimism, honestly earned

The report's outlook data is where I find the most reason for measured confidence. At the end of 2025, 43% of dealers expected sales to improve in 2026, up 10% year-on-year. Only 19% anticipated a decline. In the auction sector, nearly half of mid-tier houses expected improvement, up dramatically from just 15% at the end of 2024. Across the wider Asia region, 64% of dealers were optimistic and only 9% predicted declines.

The report also highlights the Great Wealth Transfer: more than $83 trillion set to pass between generations in the coming decades. As this wealth moves to a younger generation of collectors with different priorities and tastes, collecting motivations are evolving alongside it. I work with families navigating collection succession, and the practical implications of this shift are already visible in the conversations I am having. The question of what happens to a collection across generations is not a future concern. It is a present one.

My reading

The UBS Global Art Market Report 2026 is worth reading in full if you are serious about collecting. It does not offer easy conclusions, because the market does not offer them. What it confirms is that quality supply, trusted relationships, and geographic reach matter more now than at any point in the last decade. The markets that are growing, South Korea among them, are those with genuine collector development, strong institutional infrastructure, and access to the international circuit. That is exactly the environment I operate in, and it is where I can be most useful to the collectors I work with.