ABOVE: Sara Sutherland, an Edinburgh interior designer, says she is now more likely to splurge on a painting than a frou-frou frock.

The Arts Council in England has new figures that show that women now comprise 56 per cent of contemporary art buyers, The Scotsman writes. While there’s been some feminization of the upper echelons of collectors, the real change, notes the article, has come at the lower end of the market, for pieces selling for less than £1,000. Paintings, drawings, or original prints at that price point are purchased as luxury goods, much like a bag or a swank pair of shoes, the numbers seem to suggests.

One expert attributes the surge in female collectors to the increasing visibility and notoriety of female artists (Tracy Emin is the only one named in the article, but Gillian Carnegie, a more recent Turner Prize nominee, deserves credit too). Sara Sutherland, pictured above, tells the paper that she “would now rather own a beautiful painting than a designer dress.” To those lamenting the Sex and the Citification of the world, that’s music to the ears.

LINK: The Scotsman > World of modern art draws female buyers