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What’s a Billionaire’s Favorite Hobby? Why Art, Of Course.

November 11, 2013 by Marion Maneker

The folks at Wealth-X have released a census of billionaires that reveals some interesting things. First is the fact that there are 2170 billionaires in the world who control $6.5T of wealth. That value has doubled since the crash. They also project the total number of billionaires to grow substantially over the next seven years.

For our purposes, what is most interesting is that art has the broadest following among billionaires as a hobby with nearly 5% owning some sort of art work.

Screenshot 2013-11-11 12.28.32

However, the art ranks third in value compared to boats and planes with the average billionaire owning “only” $14m in art.

Art's Rank as Luxury Holding

More to the point, there’s even more—3700+—near-billionaires just below them. Do you think they buy the art before the jet and boat? Or wait until after they’ve got the first two?

Near Billionaires

Wealth-X Billionaire Census

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Filed Under: Collectors

About Marion Maneker

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