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The Details
  • Course Dates & Fees

    Course Dates & Fees

    May 10 - June 2, 2021

    Mondays and Wednesdays
    6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. GMT

    (1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT)
    Course Fee: £595
    All online Intensive Courses are developed in London by Sotheby's Institute faculty, programming staff, and industry experts.
  • How It Works

    How It Works

    Our online Intensive Courses are designed to enrich and deepen your understanding of a specific art world subject in an accelerated and dynamic format. The courses are ideal for undergraduates, career changers, art professionals, and art lovers seeking to learn more about art and cultural history or to acquire specific knowledge/skills.
    Led by art professionals drawn from our global faculty, these courses provide participants with expert insight and practical skills through a combination of livestreamed lectures and group discussion. Course materials and lecture recordings can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via Sotheby’s Institute’s learning platform – Canvas. Canvas is an intuitive, self-contained environment that requires no additional software.
    Once you successfully complete the course, you will receive a verified Certificate of Completion from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Our digital certificates allow you to share new skills with various social media platforms, including LinkedIn.
  • Sample Topics

    Sample Topics

    Week 1 - lecture 1: Art market sectors
    An overview of the key art market sectors : modern, contemporary, old masters and Asian art are today the most lucrative sectors of the art industry. The prices that are achieved are the result of global interest and demand.
    Week 1 - lecture 2: The Art Eco System
    The socio-economic system: the collaboration of art world with art market. The intersection of the public with the commercial sector is the key element in the validation and ultimate economic value of art as a commodity.
    Week 2 - lecture 3: Price and Value in the art market
    Art as an economic instrument and alternative asset: art today is regarded by many investors as a treasure asset. It is the key component in many financial portfolios. There are rational reasons for including art in a financial portfolio.
    Week 2 - lecture 4: 4 Key challenges to the global market
    The global externalities that impact the art market and affect investor
    confidence are extremely significant. There have been recent advances in technology, which have been applied to the creating, selling and buying of art. There have been economic shifts and geo-political changes that have had an even more dramatic impact on the value of art.
    Week 3 - lecture 5: Old Masters
    The market for gilt-edged securities: this market is stable but relatively illiquid at the top end. It has considerable risks that the more recent markets do not have; notably misattribution.
    Week 3 - lecture 6: Modern Art
    The market for blue-chip art: the market that has vied for pre-eminence with Impressionism and Post-Impressionism is now clearly the most highly valued sector of the global art market .
    Week 4 - lecture 7: Contemporary Art
    The market for aspirant blue-chip art: the market for contemporary art and post-war art has rapidly grown to rival that of Modern art. The barriers to entry are low and the market liquidity is the highest of all the sectors under examination.
    Week 4 - lecture 8: New Art New Markets
    The market for futures: these markets are evolving, rising and falling, more rapidly and unpredictably than any of the other sectors under discussion. A reading of these markets needs to take into account a whole range of issues.
  • Faculty

    Faculty

    Dr Iain Robertson B.A (Hons), M.A. PhD. is Head of Art Business Studies at Sotheby's Institute of Art. He was Exhibitions Officer for The Royal Institute of British Architects, Cultural Attaché to the British Mission Republic of China on Taiwan, Advisor to the Yu Yu Yang Foundation and Ministry of Culture on Taiwan and Senior Lecturer in Arts Policy & Management at City, University of London. He was a awarded a PhD in 2000 from City, University of London for his thesis; 'The emerging art markets of Greater China 1989-1999'. He consults for commercial organisations in Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. He lectures at universities, worldwide. He is a board member of TIAMSA (the International Art Market Studies Association). He collaborates with Sotheby's auction house and is involved in the education of its clients around the world. He was an advisor to the Union Bank of Switzerland's (UBS) corporate art collection. He was art market editor of Art Market Report and is co-series editor of Handbooks in Art Business (SIA and Lund Humphries). He speaks three languages fluently: English, Dutch, French and has an understanding of Mandarin Chinese. He has written over one hundred articles in the arts and national press. His books include: Understanding International Art Markets and Management (2005); The Art Business (2008); A New Art from Emerging Markets'(2011); Understanding Art Markets, Inside the World of Art and Business (2016); Art Business Today: 20 Key Topics (2016).His most recent text is New Art New Markets published by Lund Humphries (2018). A new book, The Routledge Companion to Global Art Markets, is scheduled to be published at the end of 2022. He has appeared on panel discussions and delivered lectures for: Deloitte, Intelligence Squared and the Milken Institute . He also features in The Bankers Guide to Art on BBC 4 (2016) and in the film, Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World (2017). In 2020 he was appointed editor of the journal Art & the Market: The Caucasus and Beyond. Editor of the Journal Art & the Market: Caucasus & Beyond, a tri-annual publication specialising in emerging art markets.

  • Register

    Register

    Click here to register.


    This course is listed under the Intensive Course option in the online application. Online Intensive Courses are open to anyone 18 years of age and older. Registration takes approximately 5 minutes to complete.
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    Questions? Contact us at online@sia.edu.