Ungrateful youngsters are binning boomer heirlooms – and I couldn’t be happier

Melanie McdonaghTue, August 25, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

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Pre-war furniture doesn’t suit the clean aesthetic of youngsters living in new housing developments - Alamy Stock Photo

Well, isn’t that just too bad? The Times has reported that the great transfer of assets underway as boomers die and bequeath their goods to their children and grandchildren isn’t turning out as the legatees might have hoped.

It is known as the “great wealth transfer” – potentially £5.5tn to £7tn worth of property, shares and items – passing through the generations. Tragically, those trillions aren’t standing up to close scrutiny.

The trouble is that tastes have changed, and for the ungrateful Tylers, Savannahs and Tamaras inheriting their parents’ and grandparents’ bits and pieces, the value of their possessions – unlike their properties – is not what they hoped. Lovely 20th-century watercolours, Victorian bric-a-brac, silver card cases and anything that can be described as brown furniture are all worth less than they would have been a generation ago.

It’s because Gen Z embraces Ikea, lives in hobbit homes too small for dining tables and prefers posters to works of art by people they’ve never heard of.

There is, according to experts, an estimated £100bn to £200bn in decorative art being inherited by Gen Z, who don’t know what to do with it. Pre-war mahogany furniture doesn’t suit the clean aesthetic of those living in Angela Rayner’s exciting new housing developments, where no one knows what a sideboard is or uses cups and saucers.

This is tragic if you’re thinking about the taste of the coming generation, but for the rest of us, it’s excellent news. I can never look through lots for an online auction without a surge of acquisitiveness. Gen Z’s loss is my gain.

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Sometimes my covetousness gets the better of me. I bought a charming glass-fronted bookcase in an online auction only to realise that it had no chance of fitting through any door in my parents’ home. But I am told that regional auctions remain happy hunting grounds for those who fancy a Georgian revolving bookstand for less than an Ikea cabinet.

As for art, like the lesser-known Impressionists that Gen Z can’t see the point of, all I can say is to wait. There is little so fickle as fashion in art, so if the market is flooded with Victorian watercolours or classical drawings, snap them up while they’re cheap.

On a large scale, the National Gallery’s Denis Mahon bought up 17th-century baroque paintings when everyone sneered at them, only for them to come into vogue a few decades later – try buying Artemisia Gentileschi now. Maybe fewer people use ashtrays, but I say you shouldn’t pass on one of those classy silver cigarette cases. It’s just the thing for decanting your fags into from modern cigarette boxes, with pictures of diseased lungs on the back.

But don’t automatically send your unwanted heirlooms to charity shops. They pay no rates, but your local antiques dealer does. Give him a break.

So, Gen Z, bring on your Georgian crystal salt holders, your silver sauce boats and your plaster statues. I’ll be waiting for them.

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