Name: Curating a Legacy: The New Art of Collecting
Uploaded: 2026-10-14
Duration: 13 min 10 s

Art is becoming a more global, digital and strategically minded asset class—yet the most enduring collections still begin with conviction, curiosity and a point of view. In this first-ever MPW conversation on art, leading collectors, artists and advisors will unpack how to buy with both passion and purpose: from identifying emerging talent and building a collection that reflects your voice to navigating exhibition, legacy planning and the technology reshaping how art is discovered, valued and traded. 

Anita Heriot, President, The Fine Art Group Americas 
Claire Zillman, Leadership Editor, Fortune 

Curating a Legacy: The New Art of Collecting

Conferences

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Anita, thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Uh, so this is our first ever main stage panel about art, um, in the history of MPW, which is very exciting, and, um, the reason we decided to add it this year is just because there seems to be so much buzz in the art world. You were seeing some, you know, record sales. There's personal collections of. Celebrities like Diane Keaton's, which are generating millions, kind of beating expectations, there's new research out that we will get into that shows that the art world's biggest spenders are getting younger and younger. So behind all that buzz, can you kind of give us a picture of, of the market? What's, what's selling, um, sort of what's behind kind of all the attention that it's getting at the moment? Absolutely. So, um, at the moment is, I mean, honestly I can say since 2012, um. I think it's important just to understand that like in 2009 we thought the whole art market was gonna collapse, right? Who's gonna buy luxury goods when you can't, you know, when your stock market is plummeting, but we actually saw an unbelievable increase in the market and that trajectory kept going up, up, up, up, and there are a lot of reasons that are related to the people in here. This is a conversation that's really about finance and global economics more than anything else. So, um, technology. The ability to sit on a computer in Bangladesh if you have an internet connection and literally tap your computer and bid on a Picasso. Change the market, right? So suddenly assets that are of great interest globally, blue chip assets. skyrocketed and continued to do so with some decrease. Um, at the same time, you have new wealth globally, right, that are interested in these assets and it's a good way to park your money in periods of military, political And economic instability. So the trends have been and continue to be for blue chip artists. And what are blue chip artists like blue chip stocks. These are artists that change the way we look at our history, right? Movement makers in the development of art history. Um, when the economy is very, very strong. Then we also see a great interest in living artists, um, but there has been some flattening of that market with a deep focus on blue chip artists, and that is primarily due to the economic instability, the military, you know, what's happening in the Ukraine, etc. has forced folks to say, I want stable, smart acquisitions, which are blue chip. Examples, right, we've had a few conversations at the um the summit already about wealth wealth management and if if we're in the room here today and we're thinking about starting an art collection, what are the and and and as as an asset thinking about. As an asset, what's the first thing to do? What's the, where, where do you start? Yeah, I mean, the first thing, um, and I heard a conversation about alternative assets, and I think, um, I listened to the venture talk, and there was a conversation about alts being like a percentage of the portfolio, um, if you're looking for, and this is what I would talk to anyone who is interested in building a quote unquote collection or starting to buy is. What's the purpose of the collection? You know, being with all these women, I've been thinking a lot about my female collectors versus my male collectors, and there's a difference. Female collectors I've seen largely very, very focused on supporting artists that they think need the support. Male collectors, this is a generalization, but I've been doing this for over 20 years, they're very focused on financial preservation, or they're very high risk. So either high risk, investing in artists, lots of them at a low price point with hopes it'll go up, or they're investing in stable financial preservation focused women nurturing artists that need love and support. So the first thing I always want to ask is why are you doing this? Do you want that $100,000 you're putting into this, this collecting class to still be worth $100,000 when you take it out of your bank account, you put it in your art collection and that's financial preservation. Or do you want to support local artists in your community? That's shopping. So it's a very different strategy depending on what your ultimate goal is and what I typically see it's kind of a mixture of several different approaches. Once we And the money part and that part of like seeing it as part of your portfolio, then the education comes. So what role, if any, do you think emotions should have in in buying art? So, uh, the tagline for art and collectibles are non-cash passion assets. Um, so emotion has already, it is typically how people buy. I like it, I buy it. That's pretty. Let's buy it. A dealer told me that's a great work. I buy it. Um, and what I find particularly interesting and what my job is, is to help educate buyers to think about, and this is the best group to talk to. You've built businesses, your CEOs, we have CFOs in here. And then when it comes to buying the art, that side of your brain that you use for your business goes dormant. And the side that thinks that's gorgeous and beautiful gets activated. So my job is to combine the two to educate so you understand that what you're buying actually has a value proposition, um, and understanding how to use that side of your brain you've used for everything else in your life. Just in terms of buyers, there was a study, I think, out last week by UBS that said that Gen Z, so whose whose oldest members are just 29, they outspent every other generation on fine art last year and in the first half of this year. That really surprised me. Just maybe just given my preconceived notions about Gen Z. Did it surprise you? Um, well, Yes and no, um, first is, you know, how they define the word art, um. I live in Northern California. There are a lot of people now that have a lot of money and they don't know what to do with it, um, and I'm talking about a lot of the tech, right? Sudden wealth scenarios, and, um, they buy what looks cool and they don't really think about because they don't know how to understand value. Around these passions, they don't think about price. So we've seen like huge prices for, wait for it, dinosaurs, right, sneakers, um, $20 million for a Pokemon card, um, but then at the same time artists like Basquiat, that market has been pushed by young buyers. The other reason is during COVID online bidding went up 450%. So this that generation. They don't mind buying off a JPEG. If it looks cool on a computer, they'll buy it. Traditionally, you have to get in front of a work and look at it 3D to acquire it. So I think it's the online, it's the sudden wealth, um, and this like desire to start spending it. Do you think this generation, as they age will continue to have an interest in, in these kinds of collectibles? I think it's important to look at art with a big A. I think there's gonna be a huge interest in the, in the. In those objects that they grew up with, just like the baby boomers like frantically bought, you know, cars from the 60s, I think what we're going to see is that, you know, that generation that grew up around certain objects and the culture will buy heavy into that. Period of their culture. So for instance we're seeing a huge interest in buying like Audis. Like who's buying an old Audi from 1982? They are right. So that's what, that's what we're starting to see and I think we'll continue to see that. I mean you grew up, grew up in the art world. Can you just tell us just a little bit about how you got into this field? The reason I do what I do. And I, again, another talk I heard today, right, which, which is really that about how young people, you know, between, you know, before 9 years old, they observe, right? They learn through observation and then you can teach them. So I am an only child of an only child, and my grandfather was a pretty major collector, and I just observed, right? It was unfortunate that his house in Central Park West, I had to sleep in the room where he kept his African masks. That was unfortunate, but, um, I did grow up around, you know, art and Africa and so I watched him because he, my, my mom wasn't his voice. He talked to me and I watched him literally say, when I die, sell this, this is what this is worth. This should go to Christie's. And I subconsciously took that information so that when I built my company and run my company now, I, my job is to help, and I hate to say it, women, because we're gonna end up with everything. I help women think about how to be strategic around the collections they will inherit or they have to figure out what to do with. So that shaped how I view my job and my job is. Mostly to help families figure out how to buy and then how to plan. So if there are new collectors, maybe some in this room, or what you know, whether you're collecting those, you know, pieces from those blue chip artists that you mentioned or dinosaur bones or eyes, I mean how do you get your kids. Um, I mean that's a legacy purchase right in some in some regards. I mean, what, what do you think collectors can do to, to make sure the next generation sees value or kind of knows what to do with, with what they inherit? Uh, the first thing that's really, really important, I was talking to a woman today and she was telling me, you know, my mom lives with all this stuff and it's like such an uncomfortable conversation for me and my sister to have with her because she loves this stuff and she thinks we'll want it. But we won't, right? We won't want all this stuff. So it's the same way a wealth advisor's job is to sit down with the client and talk about how we're gonna strategize around your liquid assets, your real, your real property. It's the same offensive strategy one has to have with these objects because the kids that will inherit them will be terrible custodians of them. And these are actually the things. That your gen one really cared about, right? They're not going to bed thinking about a stock that they purchased. They're thinking about something they purchased on a honeymoon or at Sotheby's. So the most important thing. Is to have a plan, take an offensive approach around these collections. As for kids, um, I work with some families with 4 generations, we collect together all 4 generations, including the kids, and we teach about value and we teach about building a narrative around a collection. Um, so exposure is really, really, really important, um, at this, this conference, obviously we've talked a ton about AI, and there's been a lot of conversation about AI, um, in the creative spaces. Do you think we'll ever be up here and you'll be talking about advising people on buying AI generated artwork? I hope not, yeah, like I seriously. I hope not, but, um, we have looked, we're the largest appraisal firm in the world, so we do valuations, and you can imagine AI would have a huge role in valuations, right? They go through all the data out there and they come up with some information about an artist or an object that, you know, can take the place of an appraiser, for instance, and we have tested and tested. Tested and it comes wrong every single time unless it's something that's like a cookie cutter print, but as soon as it's an original work, it doesn't understand the nuance of value. Eventually, as so much data is fed in, I think it will be a huge tool for understanding value, which I'm sure is across other areas that that you guys focus on all the time. Um, I do think if you look at the like how technology has been used, an artist like David Hockney. When he was in his late 70s and early 80s, he couldn't pick up his hand anymore to use a brush, so he, someone gave him an iPad and he started using an iPad and he created magical, magical works on his iPad. They are multiples, and the only thing that makes it original is a piece of pencil signature on the lower right-hand side. That's it. So I think we will see that where you use AI and you use technology. And you know you still sign it in pencil and say I did that. Wow, that's great. Anita. Thank you so much for, for just educating us a little bit on this space. Really appreciate having you here. Thank you.