Fine Arts Career Services

It is so sad to think i only have two days left. I spent a lot of this morning finishing up putting together the research on Boucher for the clien’t folder that i mentioned in my last post. I then worked with another specialist and looked up pictures on van dyck. I then moved from boucher to van dyck to guercino! I spent time looking in guercino books and then photocopying pictures needed by my boss. After the great task of flipping through books (and although i say this in a manner that sounds like it is not fun, it is and i find it very educational becuase it helps me read artists hands better), i started working on Jan. 2009 consignor files. I went through almost 200 files and made sure the stuff in the files was in fact from the jan 2009 sale. I think went through my list and checked off what i had, what was missing, what i had that wasn’t needed, ect. I then alphabatized in 3 boxes the jan. 2009 files and labeled them all. They, as well as almost any department at Sotheby’s does this because eventually these boxes go to the record center. The record center is a HUGE warehouse which holds records from years and years ago. There will always be a random client who calls in needing something from 20 plus years ago and then one must make the request into the record center. In this actual department (old masters), they keep the boxes from at least the past three sales up on shelves. After that, things are sent off. As new sales come, those replace the older boxes and so on and so forth. When organzing all of this, i went through so many files. It is crazy how much they have to keep up with here. Hundreds and hundreds of papers/emails/photos/ect. It is just out of this world. They cannot afford to be disorganized here otherwise they really couldn’t get anything done.

Today is my first day back at Sotheby’s after a long year off! I did the intern program in the Old Master Paintings department last summer and have returned for just 4 short weeks to get in some extra work/learn new things. So far, the day has been pretty slow. The intern program is still running so any work goes to them first. I started a project that i have been meaning to do for forever…since i became so passionate about art history. I am reviewing all of the important dealers in the Old Masters category and jotting down specific notes on each person. I see most of these people at the sales and constantly heard their names last summer so it is nice to be able to know more about them. In my future I want to work with private dealers so this is really nice to get more educated on them and their background. I have moved onto making a list of all artistic periods and what each one entails. I am focusing more upon European 13-18th century though. This is taking me quite a while. I have spent the past few hours on this and probably will spend the rest of the day doing it, probably tomorrow as well. Back to research!