The institute offers full-time accredited master's degrees as well as a range of postgraduate certificates, summer, semester and online courses, public programmes, and executive education.

[9] As of December 2023, the school was on the list for Heightened Cash Monitoring 2 for problems related to financial responsibility by the US Department of Education.

In the summer, the institute offers two week and month long certificate programs in topics ranging from curation to art evaluation and provenance research.

Initially, the Institute served as a training program for auction house employees and provided lessons in connoisseurship.

Auction house experts and professionals often serve as Sotheby's Institute of Art faculty and guest speakers.