Swiss Arts Outlook For 2026: The Perks Of Inequality

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) From record inheritances to Gulf power plays, 2026 promises to be a year when money talks louder than ever in the cultural arena. Also check out our exhibition picks in Switzerland and what's to come in the Swiss film world. This content was published on January 2, 2026 - 10:30 11 minutes

As an online editor at the Portuguese department who is in charge of SWI swissinfo's culture coverage, I work as reporter, editor, art & film critic, while also coordinating freelance collaborations. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, I studied Film and Economics but made a career in journalism in several capacities (reporter, editor, international correspondent) before moving to documentary films, as developer and producer, and then to visual arts (in art publishing and as a curator). I joined SWI swissinfo in 2017, where I could bring all this broad experience to the coordination of our cultural section.

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Inheritances in the eight digits and higher are growing. Economic players jostle on how to tax them – or not. But inheritances certainly create a thriving environment for the arts market.

ResearchExternal link by the Swiss bank UBS concluded that the super-rich are inheriting record levels of wealth as they pass down billions of dollars to their children, grandchildren and spouses. Most of the inheritances are expected to come from the US, followed by India, France, Germany and Switzerland. In the Alpine country alone $206 billion (CHF165 billion) will be inherited in the next 15 years, according to the bank.

In another UBS study, the 2025 editionExternal link of The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, the focus is on high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), their interests across regions and generations, and their spending patterns.

The study identified two main trends: HNWIs collectors allocated an average of 20% of their wealth to art, up from 15% in 2024. HNWIs with over $50 million in assets averaged 28%. Gen Z collectors (born during the late 1990s and early 2000s) also reported higher-than-average allocations, at 26%.

The other trend is that 84% of the HNWIs surveyed inherited artworks, accounting for almost 30% of the works they owned. Almost 90% of Gen Z collectors who inherited works kept them. The authors believe that it shows a tendency to continue family tradition and build up their collections, but another reason could be that, in view of a slight downward trend in the last two years, most of them prefer to wait for a more auspicious moment to sell.

Bad times, good times

One year ago, before US President Donald Trump took office, the mood at Art Basel Miami Beach – the last big fair of the year, and usually a thermometer of the market – was of“cautious optimism”.

The expression was repeated over and over this year in the trade press in view of the tariffs war and uncertainties surrounding US policy. But seeing the late sales of blue chips in the Miami fair in December, reinforcing the trends observed in both Art Basel Paris and Frieze London in October, and the rebounds of the auction market in the second half of 2025, the stress now is more on“optimism” than on“caution”.

The very rich are back in buying mood, and not only art. The big auction houses, such as Christie's and Sotheby's, have invested extra energy in luxury goods to offset the previous downward trend of artworks. And it seems to have paid off: Christie's jewel auctions in Geneva raised over $72 million in May and $60 million in November; the house also sold a Fabergé egg for a record £22.9 million (CHF24.5 million) in London in December.

Geographic shift

However, the art power centres are shifting to the Arabian Gulf. One of the indicators is that the region is the most recent battlefield in the geopolitical sabre-rattling between Art Basel and Frieze, the world's leading international art fairs.

Art Basel Qatar will see its first edition in February, and in November Frieze inaugurates its own venue in Abu DhabiExternal link, where Sotheby's has just inaugurated its first annual Collectors' Week (this past November).

The emirate's sovereign wealth fund has a minority stake in the British-founded, New-York based multinational auction house. Abu Dhabi already has a Louvre“franchise”, but now it has just opened two new home-grown mega-museums, the Zayed National Museum and a Natural History Museum.

Meanwhile, Art Review's yearly list of the 100 External link most influential people in the field included two of the region's art leaders among the top ten.

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the sister of the current emir of Qatar and chair of Qatar Museums, that comprises a dozen institutions and heritage sites in the country, rose from the 21st spot last year to second. She was followed by curator Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, the youngest daughter of the ruler of Sharjah, president of Sharjah Art Foundation (Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi was in the first place of the list last year).

Sharjah is one of the seven emirates of the UAE, and it hosts the oldest arts biennial in the region – since 1993. New galleries are opening in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. The Gulf caters to elites from Asia, Africa, and the West, and the Middle East, of course. Add to it an environment of laxer taxes and tariffs, the Gulf tends to play an expanding role in the art market in the next very few years.

More More Swiss fine arts Art Basel expands to Qatar despite the drums of war in the Middle East

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