Christie's Education

Christie's Education is a specialist graduate school in London founded in 1978 as the teaching arm of the Christie's auction house. It grew from in-house training in objects and the art trade into a small independent institute focused on art history, art business and the professional study of collections, rather than a multi-faculty university. It has also taught in New York at times.

Teaching centers on art business, history of art and related law and provenance work, with close use of auction-house expertise and the London gallery and museum district. The London base has been in South Kensington and other central sites near the auction rooms. Degree-awarding arrangements have historically involved university partners that validate the master's awards.

Cohorts are small, typically tens of students per intake rather than a mass student body, and draw an international group of career-changers and arts professionals. The school does not operate a large research faculty or a doctoral college in the university sense.

Graduate study is mainly taught master's work in art history and art business, with seminar, cataloging and object-based teaching rather than a laboratory doctorate. The calendar follows a taught-course year in central London, where students use auction rooms, museums and the commercial art trade as the working environment.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Christie's Education lists 1 master's program.