Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2022

• Analyst: Anders Petterson
• Pages: 33

We are delighted to announce the launch of the The Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2021 (Part 2). 

The report has two main sections:

1) Online art market and changing consumer behaviour, focusing on new trends around buying art online. What has changed since the pandemic? Is the online market reverting to normality? What does this new normal look like?

2) A new section on NFTs. In this section we don’t look at the NFT and crypto market as a whole, but whether traditional art buyers are warming to NFTs, i.e Are they buying? What are the key motivations? What are they buying? How much? Will they buy more in the future? What are challenges?

Key findings

Online art buying habits

• Art buying habits – the change is permanent: In 2020, 51% of art buyers said they thought the changes in how they bought art were here to stay. Fast forward 18 months, and 84% now believe the digital shift in the art market will become permanent.
• Buyer confidence rising: Over half (53%) of online art buyers surveyed in 2022 said that the pandemic and the art market’s migration online have increased their confidence in buying art and collectibles online, up from 42% in 2020.
• New generation of art buyers: Three in ten (31%) young collectors bought their first ever artwork online, up from 14% in 2020. Nearly half (47%) of new art buyers (those who started buying art less than three years ago) made their first art purchase online, compared to 30% in 2020. The online art market has become an entrance into the art world for new art buyers, many of whom have never ventured into a gallery or auction house.
• New media art sales: Of all of the art buyers surveyed, 41% said they had bought new media art online in 2021, up from 17% in 2020. This corresponds with the rapid ascent of new media art issued as NFTs.

NFT buying habits

• Male buyers more motivated by potential investment returns than female buyers: 96% of male buyers bought NFT art for investment reasons, while 58% were driven by their passion for digital art. Far fewer female buyers bought NFT art primarily for investment reasons, at 67%, while 76% bought because of their passion for art and particularly digital art.
• Testing the water: Among those art buyers surveyed who had bought NFTs in the past 12 months, 35% had bought NFTs with a total value of less than $1,000, while 37% had spent up to $5,000 on NFTs; only 15% had spent more than $5,000 so far on NFTs.
• The art and NFT markets begin to come together: There are signs of increasing convergence between the traditional art market and parts of the NFT market. Over a quarter (27%) of all art buyers surveyed said they are likely to buy an NFT in the coming 12 months.