Art Dealer Career Profile

An art dealer is an art professional who buys and sell art. This can be a lucrative field, but success takes a lot of hard work. If you are interested in becoming an art dealer, you may be curious about the education required, the job description and the possible salary.

Education

In order to work as an art dealer, you must obtain your bachelor's degree in art history. Although a bachelor's degree is the minimum requirement, many art dealers choose to continue their education to the PhD level. Continuing education is also very important for an art dealer. They must stay up to date on the latest trends in the art world. Many art dealers subscribe to a variety of industry publications.

Job Description

Art dealers sell art. Most art dealers have a gallery space in which they show pieces of art to prospective buyers. They either sell individual pieces of art or represent an artist. Art dealers find individual pieces of art at auctions and estate sales. When they represent specific artists, they generally take a cut of the sale in exchange for promoting the artist and showing their work.

Salary

An art dealers salary can start as low as $30,000 per year. However, art dealer's salaries are highly variable. They get paid based on their sales, so their salaries depend on how much they sell, how expensive the pieces they sell are and how much commission they take. For example, a twenty percent cut of a $300 piece of art would only be $60. However, if an art dealer sells a piece of art for $30,000, a twenty percent commission would be $6,000.