The cutbacks at Christie’s, which after a disastrous fall auction season announced last month that it would soon lay off employees for the first time since the dot-com bust of 2001, may sound familiar.
But for Ms. Adamski and other young women (they are mostly women) in the glamorous world of New York’s auction houses, the downturn has hidden benefits in the form of a social correction that puts them on more equal footing with their friends working — or formerly working — on Wall Street.
Art professionals said that Ivy Leaguers with master’s degrees typically earn $19,000 for a junior position to $50,000 for a midlevel specialist at an auction house, perhaps a fifth of what peers make working in law or banking. Now, with so many who chose the more lucrative paths unemployed, Ms. Adamski and others say there is less pressure to spend, spend, spend.