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Last month the monstrous fruit of a freshwater mollusc was sold at auction in The Hague for $374,000 to a buyer who just had to have a piece of Russian royalty.
When it comes to putting a price on jewels, artworks and other collectibles provenance is everything and sometimes the value of an item that comes under the hammer is entirely tied up in the fame of previous owners.
On s1jobs you can find a huge variety of sales jobs and at the auction house end of the business, experience and contacts are everything. You must have a nose for an undiscovered treasure and a formidable network of potential buyers with whom you keep in regular contact, helping them fulfil their ambitions while you meet your sales targets.
You need to be up to speed on who is selling, even before they’ve even thought about parting with a priceless possession and you must know who holds what in their collection.
Once or twice in your career you might get lucky with a ‘Cash in the Attic’ type find.
Perhaps someone will walk in the door with a Ming vase that’s been gathering dust at the back of a cupboard or a dull old print that, cleaned and restored, reveals itself to be a lost Vermeer.
But these are the exceptions in a sector that relies on detailed knowledge of what is held where.
If you know the buying trends of the super rich, then the world really is your oyster. The top auction houses have sales rooms everywhere, so this is a truly global business. And, if you’re the go-to expert in your field, you’ll spark a bidding war of your own if you put yourself out there on the job market.
With countries such as China keen on spending their newfound wealth to buy back its own heritage and furnish the homes of its new elite, the sources of money that keeps this business ticking over are unlikely to dry up very soon.
So, if you’ve a degree in fine art, impeccable social skills and genius-level networking abilities, you could find yourself making a mint in sales commissions from other people’s treasures.
Snap up the best Sales roles with s1jobs but be quick . . . they’re going, going, gone!