Gold: A History

Explore gold’s enduring allure across history, from ancient treasures to contemporary craft practices. Uncover its symbolic powers, cultural resonance, and endless malleability through the V&A collections, expert insights, and lively discussions.

Guided by V&A curators, leading metalworkers, and world-class experts, each session invites you to engage with the richness of V&A’s collections and with gold artefacts of global significance.  Speakers include historians Professor Peter Oakley and Beatriz Chadour-Sampson, and artist jewellers Emefa Cole and Ute Decker.

On this online art history course, learn from our world-class experts wherever you are, whenever suits you: watch lectures live or view the recording later in your own time. You can experience the full breadth and depth of the V&A's collections with 12 hours of study over 6 weeks. Learn at your own pace: lecture recordings and study materials, lecture notes, copies of the presentations, and additional study materials are available in our secure Microsoft Teams environment for 6 weeks after the course ends, so you'll never miss a thing. And finally, join the conversation: share your perspective with your fellow students, and support each other in your further enquiries outside of class time.