# Art History Careers: What the Work Actually Is
> A cataloguer, a provenance researcher, a conservator and an auction specialist do four different jobs. What each day involves, the qualifications each demands, and where the money is.
> The Study - 2026-08-02
> Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/art-history-careers-what-the-work-actually-is/
## Key points
- Conservation is the most prescriptive route: NYU requires Organic Chemistry I on the transcript at the point of application, and Buffalo State requires 16 credit hours of chemistry plus 21 semester hours of art history.
- Icon accreditation in the United Kingdom is a mid-career award, typically five years of full-time practice after a conservation degree and eight to ten years for those trained on the job.
- Junior cataloguing and sales administration roles in London auction houses were reported at 20,000 to 30,000 pounds in 2019, with specialists on base salaries of roughly 41,000 to 44,000.
- The Getty Graduate Internship pays a stipend of 52,500 dollars for twelve months, which is the exception that shows how much of the sector's entry-level work is unpaid or badly paid.
## The cataloguer makes objects findable, and the standards are written down
## The provenance researcher works in archives, and the constraint is language
## Conservation has the most explicit entrance requirements in the field
## The auction specialist is a commercial role wearing art-historical clothes
## How entry actually works, and what to do while it is not working
The four routes look adjacent from outside and are not. A conservator's training is a science degree with art history attached. A cataloguer's is a documentation discipline with published standards you can start reading today. A provenance researcher's is archival and linguistic, and is entered sideways by people already in a collection. A specialist's is commercial, and the art history thins as the salary rises. Choose one, then acquire the specific checkable qualification it demands, whether that is the organic chemistry, the German script, fifty catalogue entries or the accreditation, rather than accumulating another general degree in the hope that it reads as seriousness. The people who get in are, with dull consistency, the ones who could show what they had already done.
## Questions
**Which chemistry do conservation programmes actually require?**
A full year each of general and organic chemistry with laboratory sections is the AIC baseline. Buffalo State specifies 16 credit hours and states that chemistry designed for non-science majors will not be accepted. NYU's Conservation Center requires Organic Chemistry I to appear on the transcript, completed or in progress, at the time of application.
**How long after graduating can I call myself an accredited conservator in the UK?**
Icon accreditation is a mid-career award, not an entry-level one. Icon's guidance is that conservation graduates generally need around five years of full-time conservation work to have a decent chance of success, and that those trained on the job without an academic conservation qualification need roughly eight to ten. Pathway membership provides a mentor and an annual review through that period.
**Is a Sotheby's Institute or comparable master's necessary for an auction house job?**
No. It is a recognised and costly route: the New York master's runs to 30 taught credits at 1,878 dollars each plus a 6-credit thesis, with field trips at 4,500 to 6,500 dollars. Departments hire on demonstrated object knowledge, a language and a network, all of which can be built more cheaply inside a saleroom or a regional auction house.
**What is the fastest way into provenance research?**
Laterally, from a documentation, registrar or trade role, with a certificate course on top. The German Lost Art Foundation supports the Freie Universitaet Berlin modular certificate, taught September to January in Berlin and Dresden partly inside museums doing the work, and it is aimed explicitly at people already employed in collections, museums and the art trade.
## Sources
- [1] Collections Trust, 'Spectrum' (UK museum collections management standard, developed from 1994; version 5.1 published September 2022; 21 collections management procedures).
- [2] Collections Trust, 'Spectrum primary procedures' (cataloguing as a primary procedure alongside object entry, acquisition and accessioning, location and movement control, inventory and object exit).
- [3] Visual Resources Association, 'Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO)' (data content standard; relationship to CDWA and VRA Core; use of controlled vocabularies).
- [4] Getty Research Institute, 'Categories for the Description of Works of Art: The CDWA and Other Metadata Standards'.
- [5] American Institute for Conservation, 'Become a Conservator: Pre-Program' (one full year each of general and organic chemistry with laboratory; four to six humanities courses; studio art; language; portfolio requirements).
- [6] American Institute for Conservation, 'Become a Conservator: Graduate Programs'.
- [7] SUNY Buffalo State University, Art Conservation Department, 'Admissions Q&A' (16 credit hours of chemistry; non-science-major chemistry not accepted; 21 semester hours of art history).
- [8] Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, 'MA/MS Admission Requirements' (Organic Chemistry I required on transcript at application; four upper-level art history courses; GRE not required; pre-programme internship not required).
- [9] Institute of Conservation, 'Your Guide to Icon Accreditation: Experience, Assessment and Support' (five years for conservation graduates; eight to ten years for those trained on the job).
- [10] Institute of Conservation, 'Pathway Membership' (mentoring, annual review, evidence requirements).
- [11] German Lost Art Foundation (Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste), 'Advanced training programme on provenance research' (Freie Universitaet Berlin certificate course; September to January; Berlin and Dresden; target audience).
- [12] The Art Newspaper, 'Lifting the lid on auction house salaries', 25 November 2019 (junior cataloguers, department assistants and sales administrators at 20,000-30,000 pounds; specialists at roughly 41,000-44,000 base). Figures are London-specific and dated; check current advertised bands.
- [13] Sotheby's Institute of Art, master's degrees in New York: admissions and tuition (30 taught credits plus 6-credit thesis; 1,878 dollars per credit; materials fee; field study trips at 4,500-6,500 dollars).
- [14] Getty, 'Graduate Internships' (twelve months full-time; 52,500 dollar stipend; 1,500 dollars relocation; up to 3,000 dollars research travel; participating programmes).
- [15] Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, grants and fellowships programme. The doctoral scholarship is reported at 32,000 pounds a year for three years; the Centre's dedicated page for it no longer resolves, so the figure is recorded from the programme listing and should be re-checked against the Centre directly.