The art market is thriving in Texas, with an increasing number of transactions over $1 million, per a report by Bank of America and ArtTactic.

Why it matters: The state's art boom is a byproduct of its growing population and more ultra-wealthy families moving to the state, Bank of America Dallas president Jennifer Chandler tells Axios.

Texas' arts and culture industry generated almost $460 million in sales tax revenue in 2023, per the Texas Cultural Trust.

Follow the money: In 2015, 53% of all U.S. art purchases over $1 million were from buyers in the Northeast. That dropped to 32% by 2025, shifting to buyers in the Southeast and Central South.

Around 46% of the country's overall art spending last year came from buyers in California, Florida, New York and Texas, per the Bank of America report.

The four states also accounted for around 80% of the country's art purchases over $1 million.

The intrigue: Texas wasn't a top 10 state in 2015 for art transactions over $1 million. Now, the state is fourth, with a 6% market share for the transaction type, Bank of America says.

State of play: Art is a "heartstring purchase" that's attracting a new generation of buyers, including tech founders diversifying their portfolio and young people whose families have collected art for generations, Chandler tells Axios.

Sales of impressionist and modern art increased last year, along with art made by women.

Zoom in: Dallas and Houston's growing art communities are adding to the allure of collecting art, per the report.

• The Dallas Art Fair, which took place over the weekend, included 90 dealers and galleries from 18 countries, and introduced a $20,000 art prize.
• A copper hippopotamus from a Houston-based collector's estate sold for $31.4 million last year, becoming the most expensive design work ever sold at auction.
• And Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, one of the world's largest auction houses, posted total sales of $2.2 billion last year, the fifth consecutive year of record sales.
• "That's a global institution they built right here in the heart of North Texas. And if anything, that's an example of what we can do in the arts," Chandler says.