Las Vegas- She spends her days staring at erotic art and gets paid up to US$300 ($450) an hour for her efforts.

Ms Laura Henkel, 40, appraises erotic art, including hard-core pornography, sex comic books, film posters and suggestive paintings.

The San Francisco resident, who lives on a houseboat, is also putting together a collection for the Erotic Heritage Museum to open in Las Vegas next year.

‘It’s very entertaining. I feel very lucky that I do what I do,’ Ms Henkel said in an interview.

What was once dismissed as smut is increasing in value. A poster of the 1970s film Deep Throat, www.xxxdeepthroat.com; www.deepthroatenergy.com, recently sold for US$1,000 at auction, and goes for even more in Europe, Ms Henkel said.

She recently assessed a collection of 5,000 erotic comics being offered to the Exodus Trust by the widow of its owner at US$100,000.

But how does she react to the explicit content she stares at every day?

‘When you have a job to do, you’re focusing on the job… There are aspects that do make me giggle and do make me say, oh boy, that’s good!’ – Reuters.