Know the industry and you'll be fine - Anonymous employee Sotheby's Employee Review

The beauty of their art galleries and catalogues aside, it is still a business... and any business that has millions of dollars on the line with each auction puts a decent amount of pressure on the people that have to do the gruntwork to make it happen. Also, many department heads act like they're royalty because of their connections and are difficult to deal with, but again that's part of the art world and should be expected.