The first in an ongoing series on the practice of collecting art, this panel brings together Alexandra Olsman (Assistant Vice President, Specialist, Ancient Sculpture & Works of Art, Sotheby’s New York), Dr. Ann Blair Brownlee (Associate Curator, Mediterranean Section, Penn Museum), and John Medveckis (PAR 90, Director’s Council, Penn Museum) for a discussion on collecting antiquities. Throughout the series, experts from the field will address how to build the foundations of a collection, the role of the collector in an arts ecology, considerations for responsible stewardship, how to understand the art market, and make informed decisions.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Alexandra Olsman
Assistant Vice President, Specialist
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s New York
Alexandra Olsman joined Sotheby’s in 2018 after spending six years at Christie’s New York as a specialist in the Antiquities department. During her time at Christie’s, she was instrumental in the cataloging, researching and sale of a number of important American collections, including works from the Estate of William Kelly Simpson, Elias S. David and Daniel W. Dietrich II. Additionally, Ms. Olsman oversaw the inaugural online sale of Ancient Jewelry: Wearable Art, marking the first digital sale within the category.
Since joining Sotheby’s, Ms. Olsman has been integral in handling record breaking sales of ancient sculpture including “The Hamilton Aphrodite” (world record price for a classical sculpture at auction) in 2021 and an Egyptian limestone “Figure of a Man” (second highest price for an Egyptian work of art auction). Ms. Olsman also brings over a decade of experience in navigating the changing climate of compliance and provenance concerns in the antiquities market.
Ms. Olsman is a native Philadelphian, and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies and Art History from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.
Ann Blair Brownlee
Associate Curator Emerita in the Mediterranean Section
Penn Museum
Ann Blair Brownlee is Associate Curator Emerita in the Mediterranean Section of the Penn Museum. A specialist in the art and archaeology of ancient Greece, particularly Greek vase painting, she has published widely on Archaic Corinthian and Attic black-figure pottery. She has excavated in Cyprus and Greece, where she has a long association with the Corinth Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and is studying the Archaic Corinthian pottery from a deposit in Corinth’s Potters’ Quarter.
At the Penn Museum, she has been studying the collection of Attic black-figure pottery from excavations in the 1890’s at the Etruscan city of Orvieto, recovering the archaeological context through archival research both in Philadelphia and in Italy. She has also been doing provenance research on the museum’s Greek and Etruscan collection, and at Penn, she regularly taught a seminar that focused on provenance issues and collectors of classical antiquities in 19th century Philadelphia.
John Medveckis (PAR ’90)
Director’s Council
Penn Museum
Mr. John J. Medveckis was raised in Indianapolis, studied architecture, and earned his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Cincinnati. He spent his career working with prominent high net worth families and family offices, both in the United States and in Europe, and is a former partner in the Philadelphia investment advisory firm of Cooke & Bieler (1973–2021). As a businessman, philanthropist, patron of the arts, collector, and amateur historian, Mr. Medveckis actively leverages his professional expertise in support of his passions and the community at large. His community service extends to active involvement with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Research Center in Egypt, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, The Barnes Foundation, and the Philadelphia Committee on Foreign Relations. Mr. Medveckis has served on the Curtis board since 1994 and currently serves as a trustee for the Philadelphia Museum of Art and on the Director’s Council of the Penn Museum. Born in Latvia, he also serves as Honorary Consul for Republic of Latvia in Pennsylvania.