The Art Market Is Growing Again

Art & Business - Founding Series 2026
By intendle Market Intelligence | Updated: August 5, 2026

The global art market returned to USD 59.6 billion in 2025. Yet online sales, platform commissions and visibility remain unevenly distributed. intendle therefore uses a verified membership model with no intendle sales commission.

The global art market is growing again. After two years of declining sales value, turnover rose by four percent in 2025 to an estimated USD 59.6 billion, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Public auction sales increased by nine percent, the dealer sector grew by two percent, and the number of transactions edged upward to 41.5 million.

These figures suggest a recovery. For individual artists, however, they tell only part of the story. A growing market does not automatically mean that more revenue reaches the people who create the work. Between total market value and the artist's income stand galleries, auction houses, online platforms, payment processing, advertising, shipping, taxes and one central question: who controls direct access to the buyer?

Especially in online sales, the platform's business model determines whether a transaction strengthens the artist economically or merely generates additional turnover within the system. A high commission may appear to be an acceptable intermediary fee on a lower-priced work. On a work priced at several thousand dollars, the same percentage becomes a substantial transfer from the artist to the platform.

intendle has chosen a different priority. intendle Marketplace uses a fixed membership rather than a sales commission. Verified sellers choose between two plans: Business costs USD 60 per month or USD 600 per year for up to 150 artworks, and Business Unlimited costs USD 99 per month or USD 999 per year with no limit on the number of artworks. Both plans are open to artists and to organizations such as galleries, museums and publishers, and every plan price includes applicable taxes. intendle does not take a percentage of an artwork's selling price. The artist retains control over the price, the work and its presentation.

This model is more than a pricing decision. It is a statement about who should own the economic success of a work.

A Market in Recovery, but Not in Balance

The Art Basel and UBS report depicts an art market whose growth in 2025 was driven primarily by the return of higher-value sales. The United States remained the largest market, accounting for 44 percent of worldwide sales and reaching USD 26 billion. The United Kingdom held an 18 percent share, and China 14 percent. Together, these three markets represented 76 percent of global sales value.

Recovery also remained uneven across distribution channels. Public auctions outperformed dealers. High-value lots returned, while many lower and middle segments continued to face pressure from costs, uncertainty and a fragmented buyer market.

Online art sales declined to USD 9.2 billion in 2025. This was the lowest level since 2019 and represented 15 percent of the total market. The figure does not, however, mean that digital channels have lost their strategic importance. The online share remained considerably above the nine percent recorded in 2019. Dealers also reported that 40 percent of their online sales went to new buyers. Digital visibility therefore remains one of the most important ways to reach people outside established gallery networks.

The decisive development is not a choice between online and offline. The market is becoming more hybrid. Buyers discover works through editorial coverage, artist profiles, social media, platforms, studios, fairs and personal recommendations. A transaction may be completed digitally or in person, but trust must exist at every point of contact.

This creates a demanding task for independent artists. They need reach without allowing their professional identity to disappear into an endless stream of images. They need sales infrastructure without permanently surrendering a substantial share of every success. And they need trust without being able to reproduce the entire institutional apparatus of a gallery.

A Platform Fee Is a Decision About Ownership of Success

Online platforms use very different pricing models. A direct comparison requires care because the services are not identical.

Saatchi Art states a commission of 40 percent on original works. Artfinder lists commissions of 40 or 45 percent, depending on the seller plan. Etsy, a general marketplace rather than a specialist art platform, charges, among other fees, a USD 0.20 listing fee and a 6.5 percent transaction fee; payment processing, advertising, currency conversion and other country-specific costs may apply in addition.

Commissions are not inherently illegitimate. In return, a platform may provide buyer acquisition, editorial selection, advice, logistics, payment processing, insurance, marketing or customer service. The correct question is therefore not simply: how high is the fee? It is: what demonstrable service does the artist receive, and how does the cost change as the selling price rises?

A percentage model grows automatically with success. When a work becomes more expensive, the platform's compensation increases even if its workload remains almost unchanged. A membership model behaves differently. The cost is known in advance and is not tied to the value of each individual sale.

What the Numbers Mean for an Artist

The economic effect becomes clear only through specific examples.

Assume that an artist sells one work for USD 1,000 within a month.

• At a 40 percent sales commission, USD 400 is deducted as commission.
• At 45 percent, the deduction would be USD 450.
• With a intendle Business membership of USD 60 per month, the amount remaining with the artist after that membership cost is, arithmetically, substantially higher.

At a selling price of USD 5,000, the difference becomes considerably greater.

• Forty percent equals USD 2,000.
• Forty-five percent equals USD 2,250.
• The membership fee at intendle remains USD 60 per month on the Business plan for up to 150 listed artworks, or USD 99 per month on the Business Unlimited plan with no limit on the number of artworks.

On a sale of USD 10,000, a 40 percent commission would already amount to USD 4,000. A fixed membership, by contrast, does not rise automatically with the selling price.

This calculation deliberately isolates platform commission and intendle membership. Payment processing, taxes, shipping, packaging, insurance, customs, returns and other direct costs may arise independently of the platform model. intendle therefore describes its model precisely as having no intendle sales commission, rather than claiming that there are no costs of any kind.

That precision strengthens the proposition. A credible market does not need misleading zero-cost rhetoric. It needs a clear distinction between the price paid for the platform and the real costs of a transaction.

intendle Marketplace Cost Index

To compare platform models meaningfully, intendle proposes a cost index built around six variables:

1. Fixed base costs: membership, listing fees or minimum fees.
2. Variable sales commission: the share that rises with each sale.
3. Payment and transaction costs: charges for payment services or currency conversion.
4. Mandatory advertising costs: additional charges that may arise through internal or external advertising.
5. Operational services: buyer acquisition, support, shipping coordination, insurance, returns and dispute resolution.
6. Artist control: pricing, access to customers, presentation, data, brand identity and the ability to pause an offer.

This index prevents two common errors. First, it avoids treating the lowest visible percentage as automatically the best offer. Second, it prevents a high commission from being justified solely by the abstract promise of “reach.” Reach has economic value only when it reaches relevant buyers and translates into measurable outcomes.

Before choosing any platform, an artist should therefore begin with a simple annual calculation:

Annual platform costs
= fixed fees
+ sales commissions
+ mandatory listing and advertising fees
+ other platform-specific costs

A second calculation should then follow:

Effective platform rate
= annual platform costs ÷ annual gross sales value × 100

An artist who sells USD 20,000 in a year and pays a 40 percent commission transfers USD 8,000 to the platform. Twelve months of the Business plan at USD 60 amount to USD 720, or USD 600 with yearly billing, for up to 150 works offered at the same time. Twelve months of Business Unlimited at USD 99 amount to USD 1,188, or USD 999 with yearly billing, with no limit on the number of works. Other transaction costs must be added separately in both cases.

The difference is not a theoretical detail. It can fund studio rent, materials, photography, framing, insurance or several months of artistic working time.

Why intendle Prioritizes Verification Over Volume

A marketplace without a sales commission would not, by itself, constitute a quality model. Without trust, it could become another unstructured upload surface. intendle therefore connects commercial access to verification.

Verification serves three functions.

First, it links a work to a verified person or organization. Second, it strengthens credibility with buyers. Third, it protects the market from being dominated by anonymous or mass-created accounts.

Verification is not intended as a status symbol that automatically guarantees artistic quality. It confirms identity and professional context. Quality remains a matter of editorial, aesthetic and market judgment. This distinction is essential: a verified profile creates trust without claiming that taste should be centrally controlled.

In intendle Marketplace, the isolated product is therefore not the first priority. The central relationship is the connection between the work and the artist. A buyer can understand the seller's professional identity, artistic practice and public context. The artist is not reduced to a title, a price and a thumbnail.

Visibility Needs Context, Not Merely Placement

Many online platforms treat visibility as scarce advertising inventory. Those who pay more, or are favored by the algorithm, appear more often. For artists, this can create a cycle in which they pay to participate, surrender a commission when a sale occurs and then spend more simply to ensure that their work is seen.

intendle follows a broader model. Editorial coverage, professional profiles, Discover, the Marketplace and Performance Booking belong to one cultural environment. A work can therefore appear not merely as a product, but as part of an artistic position, an interview, an analysis or a professional career.

This does not mean that every listed work automatically receives editorial attention. It means that the platform does not artificially separate economic exchange from cultural context.

For new buyers, that context is particularly valuable. People without a long-standing relationship with galleries need intelligible information: Who is the artist? Why does the work matter? How was it made? What exactly is being acquired? Is the work unique or part of an edition? Which rights transfer? How will shipping and documentation be handled?

The better these questions are answered, the less a buyer must rely solely on fame or price.

A Different Relationship Between Platform and Artist

The conventional commission model creates a simple alignment of incentives: the platform earns when a sale occurs. It also creates a permanent participation in the value of every individual work. intendle deliberately chooses a different relationship.

Through membership, the artist pays for access to a verified, professional sales environment. The price of the work and the economic success of the sale remain more firmly with the artist. The platform must therefore demonstrate its value not by taking a large share of individual sales, but through quality, trust, visibility, professional tools and a credible cultural environment.

This model demands discipline from both sides. intendle must create a platform whose membership offers a demonstrable benefit. Artists must maintain their profiles, works, information and communication professionally. A membership model is not a promise of automatic sales. It is a structure designed to ensure that a successful sale does not automatically trigger a disproportionate payment to the platform.

The Market of the Future Will Not Belong Only to the Largest Players

The global art market will continue to be shaped by concentrated capital, established houses and a small number of geographical centers. At the same time, new buyer relationships are emerging wherever artists can be found directly, presented credibly and understood professionally.

The decline in purely online sales in 2025 is therefore not an argument against digital art markets. It is an argument against the belief that technology alone can replace trust. Buyers need context. Artists need control. Platforms need a business model that does not profit only from the size of the transaction.

intendle combines these three requirements: verification for trust, editorial and professional context for visibility, and a fixed membership with no intendle sales commission for economic control.

For an artist, the most important figure is not the total size of the market. What matters is how much remains from an individual sale, what relationship is created with the buyer and whether each work strengthens the artist's professional identity.

An art market can move billions while leaving artists with little power. A better model begins where success is not penalized, authorship is not hidden and transparency does not appear only in the fine print.

intendle is not building this market around a commission. intendle is building it around the artist's independence.

The next step with intendle: Compare the intendle Marketplace plans, apply for verification and offer your work with Business for USD 60 per month or USD 600 per year for up to 150 artworks, or with Business Unlimited for USD 99 per month or USD 999 per year with no limit on the number of artworks, and no intendle sales commission.

Sources

1. Art Basel and UBS / Arts Economics, Dr. Clare McAndrew: The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026. Basis for global sales, market shares, auctions, dealers, transactions and online sales.
2. Art Basel and UBS: Survey of Global Collecting 2025. Supplementary basis for direct purchases from artists, studio sales, commissions and digital discovery.
3. Saatchi Art Help Center: Commission Rate, still stating a 40 percent commission on original works at the time of research.
4. Artfinder Seller Support: How much will I be paid?, last updated July 30, 2026. Basis for the official calculation example using a 40 percent commission.
5. Artfinder Seller Support: Fee and seller-plan information, current in 2026. Basis for identifying different commission tiers.
6. Etsy Help: What are the Fees and Taxes for Selling on Etsy?, reviewed August 5, 2026. Basis for listing and transaction fees.
7. intendle business model: Plan prices and services as of October 2026: Business at USD 60 per month or USD 600 per year for up to 150 artworks, Business Unlimited at USD 99 per month or USD 999 per year with no limit on the number of artworks, every plan price including applicable taxes, no intendle sales commission, and commercial access following verification.