Jobs / Education and social services / 25-4013.00
Museum Technicians and Conservators
Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art. May identify and record objects or install and arrange them in exhibits. Includes book or document conservators.
- US jobs
- 12,310
- Median wage
- $51,440 a year
- Job family
- Education and social services
Can agents do the work of museum technicians and conservators?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Education and social services:
- Task levelUnexploredNo task-level benchmark in our collection tests teaching, counseling, or casework.
- Project levelPartialThin, adjacent evidence only. GDPval, which spans 44 occupations, is the one benchmark in our collection mapped here. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all GDPval occupations. No benchmark tests work with students or clients.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in education and social services, not always this occupation's tasks.
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Determine whether objects need repair and choose the safest and most effective method of repair.
- Specialize in particular materials or types of object, such as documents and books, paintings, decorative arts, textiles, metals, or architectural materials.
- Recommend preservation procedures, such as control of temperature and humidity, to curatorial and building staff.
- Install, arrange, assemble, and prepare artifacts for exhibition, ensuring the artifacts' safety, reporting their status and condition, and identifying and correcting any problems with the set up.
- Study object documentation or conduct standard chemical and physical tests to ascertain the object's age, composition, original appearance, need for treatment or restoration, and appropriate preservation method.
- Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes.
- Repair, restore, and reassemble artifacts, designing and fabricating missing or broken parts, to restore them to their original appearance and prevent deterioration.
- Perform tests and examinations to establish storage and conservation requirements, policies, and procedures.
- Prepare reports on the operation of conservation laboratories, documenting the condition of artifacts, treatment options, and the methods of preservation and repair used.
- Direct and supervise curatorial, technical, and student staff in the handling, mounting, care, and storage of art objects.
- Photograph objects for documentation.
- Enter information about museum collections into computer databases.
Other job titles for this occupation (22)
Conservation Technician (Conservation Tech) · Conservator · Exhibit Technician (Exhibit Tech) · Museum Registrar · Museum Technician (Museum Tech) · Objects Conservator · Paintings Conservator · Paper Conservator · Preparator · Textile Conservator · Art Conservator · Art Preparator · Artifacts Conservator · Conservation Worker · Conservator Technician (Conservator Tech) · Document Restorer · Ethnographic Materials Conservator · Exhibit Preparator · Museum Exhibit Technician (Museum Exhibit Tech) · Museum Preparator · Preservation Contactor · Preservation Vendor