12. Riga Contemporary, Young Buyers and Classic Art, and Women in the Art Market

This week, Georgina reports back from Riga Contemporary (rigacontemporary.com) in Latvia, where the stands cost only €500 (!), and asks what it takes to build an art market in a small country from nothing.
She then turns to Classic Week in London, where a nineteenth-century Laocoön made £13.6 million against a £2 million estimate, and questions whether young collectors really are flooding into the Old Master market.
In the second half, Tom works through a stack of recent reports on women in the art world, looking at the various headwinds and tailwinds women artist and professionals face, particularly in middle age, where half of women aged 35 to 44 are considering leaving the industry, and what the "glass escalator" has to do with any of it.
Enjoy!
Reports mentioned in the Episode:
Women Artists Report - June 2026 (arttactic.com/reports/women-artists-report-jun…)
AWITA X artnet Survey (awita.london/hardwiring-change-survey-awita-x-…)
SML Art Market Salary Report 2025 (sophiemacpherson.com/sml-art-market-salary-rep…)
The Art Basel & UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025 (theartmarket.artbasel.com/survey-of-global-col…)
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