conservator
Conservators organise and valorise works of art, buildings, books and furniture. They work in a wide range of areas such as creating and implementing new collections of art, preserving heritage buildings by applying restoration techniques as well as foreseeing the conservation of literary works, films, and valuable objects.
conservator conservators organise and valorise works of art, buildings, books and furniture. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include conservation techniques, collection management software, art history, digitization, museum databases.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £34,237 a year for Archivists and curators (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2472). ONS rates this estimate acceptable: it rests on a small sample, so treat it as a rough guide. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only conservator, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Frequently asked questions
What does conservator do?
Conservators organise and valorise works of art, buildings, books and furniture. They work in a wide range of areas such as creating and implementing new collections of art, preserving heritage buildings by applying restoration techniques as well as foreseeing the conservation of literary works, films, and valuable objects.
What skills does conservator need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include conservation techniques, collection management software, art history, digitization, museum databases, create collection conservation plan. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace conservator?
Our AI-durability model gives conservator a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.