Also called: Department Specialist (Christie's, Sotheby's)
An expert at a major auction house who finds, researches, and sells rare art and objects.
Specialists in areas like sneakers, dinosaur fossils, comics, wine, or Old Master paintings hunt for consignments, research provenance, write catalogs, and talk to collectors before big sales.
Estimate; senior specialists at top houses earn well into six figures.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 8 years after high school. Art history or related degree, often a master's; deep expertise in a category.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, On-the-job training. Training cost: $60k – $150k.
Majors to look at: Art History, History, Business.
Growing about average. No separate BLS projection; estimate based on related occupations.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI drafts catalog text and searches provenance, cutting junior research roles; winning consignments and collector trust stay human.
Classes: Art history, History, A foreign language, Business.
Official data: O*NET occupation 41-9099.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.