Understanding what the next generation of collectors and patrons is looking for, and how they are already shaping the art world they will inherit, is more important than ever as the highly anticipated generational wealth transfer unfolds. The industry is beginning to reckon with how little the generations now coming up share with their predecessors in terms of taste, goals and priorities, as well as how they engage with culture more broadly. Younger Millennial and Gen Z collectors are often self-made, globally dispersed and (most importantly) less bound by the old codes of collecting, ownership and status than previous generations. Released in June, Avant Arte’s A Changing of the Guard survey of art collectors under 45 suggests that next-generation collectors and patrons are less interested in financial gain than in personal storytelling, forging relationships with artists and finding purpose in an increasingly polarized society.
The second edition of Larry’s List’s Next Gen Art Collector Report confirms that thesis. It found that collecting behaviors in younger buyers are increasingly driven by intellectual and identity-based motivations rather than investment logic. For them, collecting is first and foremost an intellectual pursuit, a search for personal identity and a form of advocacy. Larry’s List’s database contains more than 4,000 profiles of art collectors from over 70 countries, and the report profiles more than 120, offering a nuanced portrait of the generation now reshaping the global art world.
In the introduction, Larry’s List founder Christoph Noe acknowledges that the world, and collecting with it, has changed dramatically since the last report was published in 2021. Even collectors who come from multigenerational collecting families are looking to carve an independent path, consciously reframing inherited art collections as living conversations they can continue on their own terms. At the same time, new, self-taught collectors are entering the scene, particularly in Asia, and are determined to do so on their own terms.
The long, insightful interviews in the Larry’s List survey introduce collectors who are openly critical of art-world norms, including hype culture, market speculation and elitism. They tend to reject FOMO-driven buying and push back against using financial metrics to guide acquisitions. Instead, they look for work that resonates with their interests and personal stories, while demanding greater transparency and authenticity from the market.
“Collecting solely for potential financial gain feels short-sighted and detracts from the more profound, more fulfilling aspects of the collecting journey,” says Chris Lyons, a Miami-based founder whose collection features work by Black artists from around the world. “The experience of living with art, appreciating its presence, and connecting with its narrative is what truly enriches the process.” For him, meeting the artist and establishing a personal connection adds another layer to his appreciation of the art, enriching the work’s narrative and context. “Building relationships with these amazing artists allows me to support and encourage their continued creative endeavors. It’s a mutually enriching experience that makes collecting art even more rewarding.”
“I see collecting as an intellectual pursuit. Many of the works that enter my collection become starting points for deeper research and engagement with specific themes,” says Jakarta-based collector Abigail Hakim. Her collection initially centered on contemporary Indonesian art before expanding to include work by artists from the Asian diaspora. Hakim describes how acquiring a work by Ipeh Nur led her to research Javanese mythology and traditions more deeply and, eventually, to a better understanding of her own history. “This is what I value most about collecting: how a single artwork can open pathways into hidden stories, knowledge and alternative readings of the past (and possible future),” she says, acknowledging that artists can be among the most perceptive narrators of Indonesia’s complex past and present. “It is an ongoing intellectual and emotional inquiry, which continues to evolve as I deepen my understanding of history, identity, and the structures of power that shape how we see and inhabit the world.”
Art serves “as both evidence and inquiry, a way of studying and substantiating the spirit of the age,” for Shanghai-based collector and art historian Zirui Zhuang. Beyond a work’s immediate visual impact, he says, what matters is what it brings into being—the histories, structures and questions it carries with it.
Having left behind the speculative craze of the pandemic and immediate post-pandemic years, younger collectors tend to draw a clear distinction between market-driven acquisition and relationship-driven collecting. Direct contact with artists, which encompasses everything from studio visits that allow collectors to get to know the person behind the work to commissions, provides the deeper form of engagement and sustained commitment they are seeking. Collecting often begins and remains rooted in a human encounter. As Hakim puts it, “every work can feel like a small, intimate friendship.”
Many of the respondents collect fluidly across established and emerging artists, media and categories, prioritizing message and personal resonance over any other consideration. “The pieces I acquire are often connected to a memory or a familiar feeling, as if I already sensed them as a part of me,” explains Milan-based collector and curator Maria Gregotti, who founded Casa Gregotti, a private home-gallery transformed from her family’s historic residence, where she regularly stages intergenerational dialogues among artists in the collection. She also says she enjoys meeting the artist behind the work and learning about their biographies, which adds depth and context. “What fascinates me most is identifying recurring themes that connect the works in my collection, thereby creating small clusters within it.”
According to Abu Dhabi-based collector Lateefa Bin Hamoodah, collectors who buy purely for decoration or as a hedge tend to end up with collections that do not hold together, because they have optimized for the wrong variable. “The work that ages well is the work that was bought because it said something,” she says. For her, encountering a work or an artist whose project needs to exist in the world, and recognizing that her support could make the difference between it happening and not happening, is not the same as writing a check without thinking.
A significant number of next-generation collectors are moving beyond the acquisition perspective, establishing foundations, opening art spaces and joining institutional acquisition committees. Consequently, the very definition of the “collector” is evolving, with the focus increasingly shifting toward sustained, active engagement with art: commissioning new works and funding exhibitions, research and production rather than simply accumulating physical objects. “I also care a great deal about what happens around the work. Supporting production, research and bringing a piece into an institutional context,” Bin Hamoodah argues. While she began by collecting works on paper during her travels and later expanded more seriously and consistently into contemporary Emirati art and global Conceptual practices, much of what she does now, she admits, does not necessarily involve buying anything. “It involves making things possible.”
Meaningful engagement, with artists, ideas and communities, and through supporting creativity and witnessing its impact, is increasingly seen as more valuable than ownership itself. Many collectors pursue this broader engagement because they want to help grow, empower or even shape the local art scenes of the places they come from or have chosen to live in, often with the aim of drawing attention beyond the main international hubs. The new generation of collectors tends to embrace a greater fluidity of roles and sees nothing contradictory in being collectors and patrons while also, at times, becoming curators, institution builders or even dealers.
As Middle East regional advisor for Beaumont Nathan and a member of the acquisition committees at Tate Modern and Chisenhale Gallery, Lateefa Bin Hamoodah operates simultaneously as a private collector, institutional voice and market advisor. The advantage of wearing more than one hat, she says, is that you stop believing in silos, which allows her to have a broader impact across multiple levels. Collecting practice and professional activity increasingly overlap in new collectors, with some monetizing their knowledge and relationships while exploring how art can benefit their businesses, and vice versa. Cross-disciplinary professional backgrounds in venture capital, technology, law, medicine and architecture are increasingly shaping how collectors think and what they collect.
As the boundaries dividing their private lives, professional activities and collecting become more porous, this generation is also reshaping how art can be made accessible to a broader public. Many see both offices and private residences as meaningful platforms for presenting the art they believe in and introducing it to new audiences. According to the survey, numerous collectors have transformed their living spaces into curated, semi-public viewing environments and are far more willing to share those spaces online, positioning themselves as models who might inspire their peers.
These collector-run spaces are emerging with particular density in Asia, reflecting a regional culture of ambition but also, perhaps more importantly and more promisingly, a community-building mindset that is moving naturally away from formal, gatekept and exclusively art-focused environments toward cross-industry, fluid formats that invite broader participation and offer a less intimidating experience.
The desire to make collections visible and publicly accessible is particularly strong among this generation, especially when compared with the guarded secrecy of many predecessors. Collectors are opening spaces, lending works, sharing them on social media and creating independent lending projects to broaden access on their own terms, outside slower institutional channels and traditional frameworks.
Casa Gregotti, for instance, is a home with its own particular history and identity, where art and everyday life coexist naturally. “The idea is not to transform the space into a conventional gallery, but to offer artists and galleries a different setting, one where works are encountered on a more human scale,” Maria Gregotti explains, noting how an intimate atmosphere creates the conditions for genuine dialogue, attentive listening and meaningful exchange. “In such a context, people are not simply visitors; they become participants in a shared experience.”
Personal relationships and a sense of community appear to be the true engines of the collecting journey, helping collectors develop their practices and widen their circles both within and beyond the art world. Mentorship and personal networks remain the most important entry points and ongoing compasses for next-generation collectors, not through reverence for the past, but through close, trusted relationships with artists, advisors, gallerists and fellow collectors who exchange insights and recommendations, creating a genuine ecosystem they actively want to shape and reshape.
Collector communities and peer networks are becoming increasingly important. Most of those interviewed describe having a close-knit circle of collector friends with whom they meet regularly to exchange ideas, discuss artists and travel to art destinations. At the same time, private initiatives and young patron councils at institutions reflect a growing tendency among collectors to organize collectively in order to build shared knowledge, access and institutional influence.
For many next-generation collectors, art is the ethical, emotional and symbolic connective tissue of an entire way of living, more than a lifestyle. It shapes where they travel, how they design their homes and who they spend time with. They see art not as an accessory or an asset, but as an essential part of how they live—a tool for both building a persona and relating to the world.
