MA in Fine & Decorative Art, London

This programme offers an intensive immersion into the challenges of connoisseurship and the documentation of art.

The programme starts on 17 September 2008 and applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Scholarships/financial aid and bursaries are available to applicants.

Based on Sotheby's original curriculum, The Works of Art Course, and concentrating principally on Old Master paintings, modern art, furniture and ceramics, the MA in Fine and Decorative Art teaches connoisseurship, a skill rarely featured in other academic settings.

Our teaching draws on the wealth of art objects available at Sotheby's auction house, in London's museums, in public and in private houses and collections around England for first-hand study.

This visual and hands-on approach, supported by a thorough grounding in the materials, techniques and physical properties of art objects, forms a foundation for object-based research and the development of professional expertise.

At the end of Semester II, students participate in the month-long "House Sale" exercise, in which they assume the roles of auction house experts preparing the catalogue of a major sale.

The course comprises three semesters. The first two are intensively taught. There is no formal tuition in the third semester when students complete their dissertations with regular tutorial supervision.

Read about Penwork: A decorative phenomenon published by Noel Riley, Consultant Lecturer on MA in Fine and Decorative Art.