How to start an art collection on any budget

The decision to invest in any collectibles market should start with curiosity and love, and buying art is no exception. While the rarest works of art in the world have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, for most collectors, art is unlikely to match the returns offered by traditional investment markets. 

A recent analysis of 10-year annualized returns including data through 2024 showed that the stock market vastly outperformed art. True, it has been an incredibly strong bull market on a historical basis, but the performance from the art market over the same time period produced some of the worst 10-year returns in seven decades.

As with any asset class experiencing a downturn, some experts see the recent weakness as a buying opportunity. The 2025 market did see some improvement, and 2026 has been an ever better year to date, with younger buyers showing up in a big way. But experts also stress that the art world is the least transparent market imaginable, with significant “insider information” involved in anticipating big jumps and the next major wave of hype. 

“What I tell people is that there is so much inside information in the art world — for instance, who has bought a particular artist or who is getting a museum show in two years — that if you are an outsider, you have little hope” of catching the next big wave early, said Canice Prendergast, economics professor at the University of Chicago, who also oversees that Chicago Booth School of Business Harper Center’s contemporary art collection, which houses more than 650 artworks.

It is important to understand that generating a repeatable investment strategy can be difficult — if not impossible.

“Most art is not a good investment,” said Magnus Resch, who teaches art economics at Yale University and is widely recognized as a leading art market expert. “If you’re buying on a limited budget, you’re unlikely to see a financial return,” he said.

Still, despite the complexities and opacities associated with art, experts advise that for anyone wishing to enter the market there are some basics to understand — from how to research art, to the various mediums, to what to buy at various budgets, and where to buy — before getting started.

Learn about galleries, auctions, and how artist values rise

Prendergast said a fundamental understanding of the market begins with knowing it is divided in two. The primary art market consists of galleries and the secondary market is typically auctions. And significant increases in value typically occur as art moves from one level of gallery to another and finally to auction.

“It’s in anticipating moves between levels that most of the action is,” Prendergast said. “There are many collectors trying to work out who is going to turn into a star [and] the key intermediaries here are galleries,” he added.

Buying in the primary market first requires the squishy “knowing something about art,” he said, but also…