What’s Fueling the Art Market? The Short Answer is Money–Lots of It–and Here’s Where It’s Coming From

The Guardian offers this report on the world’s wealthy, a growing class even in troubled times. But the fastest pace of growth comes from emerging markets like Brazil, India and China.

The growth during 2007 was driven by the emerging markets. The number of dollar millionaires created by India’s red hot economy grew by 22.7%; China followed with growth of 20.3% and Brazil came next with a 19.1% expansion in the high net worth population.

Here’s an even more relevant fact for the art market, the total number of “super-wealthy,” defined as persons with assets above $30 million has grown by 8.8% in the last year. There are 103,000 of these persons in the world today.

Millionaires Defy the Credit Crunch as the Rich Get Richer (The Guardian)