The 2021 art-buying capitals of Britain revealed

A study by Artfinder, the UK’s biggest art marketplace, has revealed the top art-buying locations across the UK, with Salisbury taking the crown. Salisbury ranks as the number one art-buying city, as 515 artworks are bought per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Top 10 cities also include Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester, Chelmsford, Inverness, Norwich, Exeter, St Albans, and Southampton – making them the UK’s most arty cities.

Interestingly, art lovers across the UK buy more paintings than any other kind of art, with oil and acrylic paintings being their top preferences.

As well as this, artwork with landscapes, sea and sky as the subject appears to be the favourite of UK art-buyers. Unanimously, Brits opt for an impressionistic piece and, perhaps surprisingly, all cities chose grey as their preferred artwork colour.

Salisbury-based artist James Earley uses his art to raise awareness of issues in the world today, such as homelessness, poverty, war, and mental health and is currently working on a series of portraits of homeless people who are living on the streets of Salisbury and Southampton.

James commented: “Salisbury is a city with a big history, it has an amazing and famous cathedral, it has beautiful surrounding countryside with incredible views, it has a diverse range of people, it has incredible colour. Salisbury is an ideal city to practise and show art and being crowned as the art buying capital of the UK makes me feel very proud. It is a huge compliment to the city and to those who have pushed art to the forefront through opening studios and exhibitions. It is now one of the pillars of the city and I truly believe this to be a celebration for Salisbury’s diversity.”

Michal Szczesny, CEO at Artfinder adds: ““It’s brilliant to see the likes of Salisbury and Redhill crowned as the art-buying capitals of the UK. 2020 saw a real boom for the online art market, with overall online art sales worldwide doubling to a record high of $12.4 billion in 2020, accounting for an all-time high of 25% of the art market’s overall value, up from just 9% in 2019. Our study shows that the whole of the UK is buying original art for their homes and here at Artfinder, we couldn’t be happier to provide the nation’s art-lovers with unique pieces created by independent artists.”

Artfinder sells original art from 6,000 artists in 96 countries, making it the world’s largest marketplace for art.