Beyond its cultural dimension, the art market functions as a hybrid economy where culture, investment, sociability, and reputation intersect. At its center are the artwork and the artist, but around them, a complex ecosystem is articulated which, according to the latest data, moved 59.6 billion dollars globally in 2025, recovering 4% after two years of decline.
In this global market, the United States continues to lead with 44% of sales, followed by the United Kingdom (18%) and China (14%), while France is growing strongly (9%). Spain, for its part, remains in a modest position: around seventh place worldwide and with less than 1% of the global volume, with Madrid and Barcelona concentrating most of the activity, especially Madrid.
However, beyond the figures: how does the gallery business really work? Where are the revenues generated? How are the more accessible art segments performing (the minimum ticket is around 3,000 euros)? And the more expensive and inaccessible segments?
"In a consolidated gallery, the usual commission is 50%"
The portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Gustav Klimt, painted between 1914 and 1916, was the most expensive work sold in 2025. It was sold in November, at Sotheby's New York, for 236.4 million dollars, overwhelming headlines around the world and reaching a new historical record: it is the most expensive piece of modern art auctioned.
But beyond these exceptional and striking cases, the ordinary functioning of the market and the gallery business is, in essence, much less showy —and much more complex.
Galleries are not simply points of sale. Their economic function is deeper: they create symbolic value, build artistic careers, activate networks of collectors, and operate in a market with high levels of opacity and information asymmetry. This combination explains why gallerism cannot be analyzed only in terms of transaction, but as a long-term value generation activity.
The art gallery model: simple in appearance, demanding in practice
"The model is very simple to understand because it is two and a half centuries old," summarizes the gallery owner and cultural consultant, Llucià Homs. The mechanism is binary: the gallery buys work and resells it, or it commercializes it on consignment in exchange for a commission. This second model is the predominant one.
In a consolidated gallery, the usual commission is 50%. “You will find few exceptions,” says Homs. In some cases, especially in markets like the American one, this percentage can be higher if there is a clear commitment to promotion.
There are also galleries that operate with commissions of 30%, but with a much more limited role. “This implies that they practically only act as intermediaries,” he explains. That is, less added value and less capacity to influence the artist's positioning.
In any case, 50% is a gross margin. From this, taxes, exhibition production, transport, insurance, promotion, and participation in fairs must then be deducted. The final result is a net margin that, if it is between 13% and 20%, is already considered a good margin within the sector.
Even so, the sector has been dragging a structural demand for years that directly impacts these margins: taxation. In February, art galleries in Catalonia and throughout Spain closed their doors for a whole week to urgently demand a reduction in the cultural VAT applied to art. Currently, the sale of a work—be it a painting, an engraving, a sculpture, or an installation—is taxed with a 21% VAT, a rate that the sector considers misaligned with that of other European countries and that penalizes the competitiveness of the local market. The main associations in the sector, Art Barcelona and the Guild of Art Galleries of Catalonia (GAC), joined the call promoted by the Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries, which demands a tax reduction in line with the European environment.
A market that recovers and shifts towards the middle segments
After a 12% fall in 2024, the market has begun a phase of moderate recovery in 2025. But this adjustment has not been uniform. According to the latest Art Market Report 2025 driven by economist Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, the highest segment—works above 10 million dollars—has significantly reduced its activity, while the middle and lower ranges (below 50,000 dollars) have gained weight.
"The digital channel represents 17% of global sales"
In parallel, the digital channel has consolidated as a structural part of the business: it already represents 17% of global sales, and a significant part of operations are closed without physically seeing the work. Platforms like Instagram have become key commercial channels.
Another relevant change is the progression towards gender parity in the primary market: women artists already represent 45% of exhibitions in galleries.
And although these are all global trends, they also mark —with nuances— the evolution of the Barcelona market, still little systematized in data.
With about 330 million euros annually, the Spanish market remains small compared to the large global centers. Historically, its share has been between 0.5% and 2%. Within this context, Catalonia would represent approximately 25% of the state market, behind Madrid, which concentrates more than 40%.
It is, however, a highly internationalized market. "The art market has completely globalized," explains Homs. "It has gone from being local to being global, thanks to fairs, technology, and tourism." This openness has expanded the base of international buyers, which has simultaneously combined with another trend, this one negative: the reduction of the local collector.
An open sector… but difficult to sustain
Gallery ownership is a sector with few barriers to entry, but with a difficult survival rate over time. "There are no barriers to entry: anyone can open a gallery. The difficult thing is for it to last," points out Miquel Alzueta, a Barcelona gallery owner with a long career in the sector.
And the data corroborates it: according to the latest available report on gallery ownership in Spain (from 2020), a significant part of Spanish galleries were born after the 2008 crisis, but only a minority manage to consolidate in the long term. Business sustainability —more than entry— is the real challenge.
Where are sales generated?
The art market is divided between galleries and auctions, with an approximate 50% split. However, within the gallery channel, the weight of fairs is decisive: approximately half of sales are made outside the physical space of the gallery. "More is sold outside than inside the gallery," summarizes Alzueta.
However, despite the growing competition from digital channels, direct sales from artists, or new technological tools, galleries continue to be the main marketing channel.
Fairs are a central part of the business model, but with limited direct profitability. "You can't live without fairs, but you don't live off fairs either," says Alzueta, who points out that participation costs can be between 50,000 and 70,000 euros, which forces them to be understood as an investment in visibility, reputation, and network. And Homs reaffirms this view: "many galleries live off fairs, but not all can access them," he points out.
The case of ARCOmadrid illustrates its systemic impact: beyond the 95,000 visitors and the 195 million euros generated, it activates a whole parallel ecosystem of exhibitions, institutional purchases, and events. In this sense, fairs are not so much a sales channel as a market infrastructure, generating many business opportunities that happen outside the fairgrounds.
Barcelona, which regrets not having a fair like ARCOmadrid, has chosen to participate very actively in the fair and has opted to create different complementary local models: a set of specialized fairs —Swab, Loop or By Invitation— which, without being generalist and global, build a diverse and complementary ecosystem, and another opportunity to connect artists, galleries and collectors.
The bottleneck: collecting
Now, despite the fairs, artists and galleries, there is no market without demand. And here emerges one of Barcelona's main weaknesses: the lack of a broad and constant network of collectors.
Despite the sector's capacity for regeneration —with new galleries and growing international projection— the market continues to be conditioned by limited local collecting. "The local collector has shrunk," Homs summarizes.
And the problem seems quite generational. Economist Enrique Lacalle, a great collector, promoter of By Invitation and president of the Círculo Ecuestre, laments that his generation "buys less and young people don't quite get into it," he explains. "Life is more complex and there are other priorities."
He himself is an example of a different model: "I started buying paintings instead of other things. I bought, I sold... and with little capital I ended up building a very decent collection." For him, it is a way of living art: "collecting is a vice."
The lack of young collectors especially affects the entry segment. What is an affordable work today? "About 3,000 euros," Alzueta points out. But this segment is in decline: new buyers do not always have this capital or do not perceive it as attractive enough in the existing offer.
Initiatives like By Invitation try to reduce this barrier, with pieces starting from 1,000 or 2,000 euros and a clear commitment to attracting new collectors.
Less speculation, more criteria
However, the collector's profile is also evolving. According to the Art Basel and UBS report, the market is experiencing a phase of consolidation: less oriented towards speculative buying and more focused on building coherent and sustainable collections.
In parallel, a new generation emerges that understands collecting not only as an investment or status, but as a form of support for contemporary creation and cultural impact. Unlike other sectors, the art market is not governed solely by objective variables. Prices are not transparent, information is limited, and value is, to a large extent, constructed.
In this context, the role of the gallery is central: not only as an intermediary, but as an agent that validates, positions, and generates trust in a market with imperfect information.
Because, ultimately, gallery ownership is not a product business, but a criterion business. And in a market where value is not evident, criterion is what ultimately generates price.