When asked about the biggest factors to consider when buying art, collectors reported aesthetics as the most important, cited by 78% of respondents—three times the number that cited an artwork’s potential to increase in value as a key motivating factor. 

At Arrière-Garde we know well that financial profit is not the major reason for buying art. For the true art collector, visual pleasure relating to the artwork’s story and the artist history are the real longstanding values of the art they buy. Creative capital is above and beyond economic capital. 

Our collectors tell us that a work’s aesthetic appeal is frequently the gateway to a deeper exploration of the artist and their career. Among active art buyers in the artworld today, only approximately 17% admitted to be buying art without significant consideration for the works’ content or the artist’s background or career trajectory.

Collectors also tend to see their homes as a reservoir of personal and cultural meaning, as a beacon of visual experience for guests, and a learning and formative narrative in the field of history of art for their children. They have a clear vison on the knowledge base, social and educational function that their homes spread out when they share their artworks with other members of their family, with friends and humanity at large. Therefore they consider how the art they buy can contribute to enriching their homes and personal spaces in these senses.  

The art market and system should increasingly admit that buyers overwhelmingly purchase art to live with it. Hanging artworks at home does not mean diminishing the value of art to mere decoration: it means that art collectors want to appreciate art on a regular basis. 

Moreover, has the collector’s heart changed? Or has today’s exponential access to artworks through digital sales platforms merely given more room to this heart’s feelings, dreams and nature?

At Arriere-Garde, we know that the heart of the collector has always beaten for the preservation of history, for experiencing the thrill of the search, to tell a story, and, ultimately to reveal the personality of who has it in his/her chest. 

We feel that art businesses should further engage with the collector’s soul, rather than focussing on the artist and their artworks to catch collectors’ attention.