This weekend he will appear again, the Berlin Gallery, the most important event of Berlin galleries. For the 21st publication of the event, which was once begun by a small group of Berlin galleries to attract collectors and curators – even without a fair of art – to the city and representing art in their own premises to raise again.
The official program alone contains 52 Gallery participating in 59 places, with 80 artists: inside. There are also countless small and larger galleries that also plan exhibitions and events on this date. So everything is fine in the Berlin art market?
The signs are different. The report of Art Basel and UBS Art Market, which appeared in the spring, knew how to report any good three weeks ago. The global turnover with art was reduced by $ 57.5 billion in 2024. For comparison: in the previous year, the decline was only about 4 percent. In 2025, the level is significantly lower than the level of Corona pandemia. In 2019, global sales were still 64.1 billion.
As specifically about galleries in this country, a national survey of the Institute for Development of Strategy (IFSE) conducted a study together with the Federal Association of German Gallery and the Kunst EV (BVDG) dealer. The results were announced in September, but already, as a small began artistic weekend, Hergen Vybken from IFSE presented intermitters for the reviews of the Berlin galleries previously received at the press conference.
Until now, 150 profiles have been received, 50 of them from Berlin. Not a large population yet. But the distribution of smaller and large galleries, says Vuugn.
On average 26 years
The numbers provide a lot of information, especially in comparison with the last comprehensive survey in the location of the IFSE and BVDG galleries since 2020. The difference is clear, for example, in the era of Berlin galleries. In 2025, he was 26 years old, according to the report formed by funds around 2005. In 2020, however, the middle gallery is still 18 years old.
“The dynamic phase of the construction of the 1990s followed the boom in the zero years and the phase of growth and internationalization in the 2010s, which is currently transferred to the consolidation phase of the 2020s,” Wöbken is formulated. You can also say: there is not enough offspring.
Obviously, it seems more difficult or less attractive to the founding of the gallery. “In the first research, Berlin was still formed by the young generation of the new gallery owners,” Vyubken wrote in a later position. The change of generation has not yet occurred.
One of the reasons for the lack of new foundations is certainly that the galleries were considered as the greatest weakness in this place: an increase in rental prices. For a long time, when in the appropriate places the galleries were still rooms at affordable rental prices.
Small and medium galleries, in particular, provide growing costs under pressure. The first five years of galleries are usually the most difficult. Today it seems even more difficult not only for the first time, but also to constantly manifest yourself in the market.
Fall in sales unevenly distributed
As for sales, the numbers from Berlin confirm the trend of the report of Art Basel and UBS. During 2024, IFSE involves the total turnover of Berlin galleries less than 240 million euros, which is much less than 2020. It is extremely important how this falling revolution is distributed: “About two -thirds of the Berlin galleries generate less than 400,000 euros, while the third exceeds this threshold,” the intermediate report says.
The main economic indicators are carried out by a smaller group of large galleries, polarization, which was already visible in the study of the 2020 gallery and can also be observed at the international level. “While the middle galleries are increasingly in economic pressure in Berlin, larger galleries are quite successful in the market and make them significantly.”
Several large galleries continue to conduct good business, one or another dry spell can resist without serious difficulties, while many others about survival. Not only for them is bitter, but also for the general ecosystem of art, where everything is built on each other and depends on each other. More market art, as a result of this, may be less experiments, may be a consequence of this, and this is bad news for everyone, especially for an artistic audience.
