At the age of eight, Greg Rohan started collecting coins and by 1971, at the age of 10, he was buying and selling coins from a dealer’s table at trade shows in his hometown of Seattle. His business grew rapidly, and in 1987 he joined Heritage as Executive Vice-President. Today, as President of Heritage, in addition to being the partner in charge of Heritage’s office in New York City, his responsibilities include overseeing the firm’s private client group and working with top collectors in every field in which Heritage is active. Greg has been involved with many of the rarest items and most important collections handled by the firm, including the purchase and sale of the Ed Trompeter Collection (included in the Guinness Book of World Records). During his career, Greg has handled more than $1 billion of property for consignors. He has provided expert testimony for the United States Attorney and for the Federal Trade Commission, and has appeared as an expert on CNN, CNBC, Anderson Cooper, ABC, and CBS. He works with collectors, consignors, and their advisors regarding significant collections in every one of Heritage’s 35 categories. The clients he has worked with have included the families of actor John Wayne and publisher Malcolm Forbes, Random House Publishing, Time-Warner, Frito-Lay, Stanford University, Columbia University, and The Smithsonian Institution to name just a few. Greg is a past Chairman of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) for North Texas, and is a current member of WPO in both Dallas and New York. He is an active supporter of the arts, is an advisor to the board at Austin College, and is a member of the Tate Lecture Board of Directors at Southern Methodist University. He co-authored the award-winning “Collectors Estate Handbook,” and he served two terms on the seven-person Advisory Board at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Kathleen Guzman is a recognized appraiser and auctioneer with over thirty years experience in the art and antiques industry. Ms. Guzman is the Managing Director of Heritage Auctions in New York, the third largest auction house based in Dallas. She has personally auctioned over 1,500 sales with over $1 Million objects valued at over $1 Billion US dollars. She brings 15 years experience from the world-renown international auction house Christie’s, selling such items as a Monet watercolor for $4.3 Million and the Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz for $660,000. She was the former President of Christie’s East and President of Phillips Auctioneers, as well as Senior Vice-President of Business Development at Ebay.

Ms. Guzman is frequently quoted in print, radio and has been seen on television regarding the art and antiques market and spokesperson for the art market on such shows as Oprah, Good Morning America, Today, CNN and Sally Jessy Raphael. She appears as an expert on the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” for the past seventeen years, as on-air host for Good Life TV, host at QVC, and frequent guest for the Treasure channel satellite cable station in, “Treasure Seekers” and Metro TV’s “Antique Show and Sell”. She also has co-starred for the pilot TV show “For What It’s Worth” with Robin Leach and is a contributing editor to the Miller’s Antique Collector’s Books writing articles recently. She was the Director of Hubert Gallery, specializing in Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso for two years, and is professionally, an independent consultant, a USPAP certified art appraiser, writer and charity auctioneer.

She holds an Executive M.B.A. from Columbia University and has a Master’s Degree in Art History from Queen’s College. Ms. Guzman lectures extensively on the art market for the American Appraiser’s Association, New York University, Bard College and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Ms. Guzman also auctions extensively for charitable causes including Make-a-Wish, Juvenile Diabetes and Housing Works to name a few, with noted celebrities. Her present and past clients include Bloomberg, Inc, the Estate of Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, the estate of Tom Thumb and the artist John Graham.

Aviva Lehmann joined Heritage in January 2013 after fourteen years in the auction industry. With over ten years of in-depth knowledge and experience in American Art, she holds a broad interest in all aspects of the field. Ms. Lehmann previously served as Vice President, Specialist in the American Art department at Christie’s, where she was instrumental in establishing dozens of auction records in virtually every category of American Art. While directing their mid-season auctions in 2004-6 she doubled the value of these sales. Additionally Ms. Lehmann has lectured on American Art at museums and institutions throughout the country.

 

Prior to her tenure at Christie’s, Ms. Lehmann worked for two years as assistant curator of Judaica at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Ms. Lehmann graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from Yeshiva University.

Max Brownawell is Consignment Director and Specialist for Luxury Accessories at Heritage’s New York office. Max has years of experience in the luxury resale market. As a teenager, he bought and sold pre-owned luxury accessories under his own name, and later founded an online luxury accessories company before attending the University of Virginia. Max also gained experience in luxury goods authentication and merchandising while working at The Real Real in San Francisco and New York.

Lee is a twenty year veteran of the sports card and memorabilia industry.  Lee’s trading card expertise was cultivated through a four year tour as an expert for the Sportscard Guaranty Corporation (SGC), where he served as Senior Grader. Lee joined the Heritage team in June 2007 and now uses his specialized knowledge to maximize financial return for consignors of trading cards to Heritage Auctions.

Diane D'Amato is the Director of Luxury Accessories at Heritage. Diane made her name in the Luxury Accessories world following high profile positions working for Hermès of Paris and Louis Vuitton, where her buying trips to Paris were influential in setting market trends in the United States and she oversaw more than $12 million in annual sales. Her specialty is in creating exclusive marketing partnerships and forging loyal client relationships. Diane is based in New York, joining the talent-rich Heritage team stewarding the brand, where she assists consignors and collectors with appraisals as well as supervising the category's double digit growth.

Diane has used her talents to do extensive charitable fund raising,  including sales that have benefited FATE (Foundation for Autism Training & Education), Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Sarah Miller is Director of Numismatics at Heritage’s New York office and brings a lifelong passion for U.S. Coins. A student of numismatics since age 11, she first fell in love with U.S. coins and the history behind them while attending her first coin show. This led to a job in rare coins throughout high school and college, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude from North Central College in Naperville, Ill., with a degree in Finance and Economics. She amassed an impressive list of accomplishments during her studies and is a past member of the Financial Management Association National Honor Society, the Omicron Delta Epsilon International Economics Honor Society and was a participant in the Honors Council of the Illinois Region. Sarah assists Heritage clients with their rare coin collections on a daily basis in addition to being a regular contributor to the Heritage Blog. She is also a current member of the American Numismatic Association. In her spare time, she enjoys travel, taking ballet classes, knitting, and baking. 

Leon, Heritage Auctions’ Director of Modern and Contemporary
Art for its New York office, has spent his entire life in the art business,
with parents who both own art galleries, and three siblings, all of whom also
currently work in the art world. Prior to joining Heritage, Benrimon owned
Benrimon Contemporary in New York, where he sold blue chip artworks on the
secondary market in association with historical exhibitions, while dedicating
himself to representing and supporting emerging, established and mid-career
Contemporary artists working in a variety of mediums.  He received his
Master’s Degree at Christie’s Education in New York and worked at family owned
galleries on Fifth and Madison Avenues at David Benrimon Fine Art.  His specialty
is working with new collectors and post-war artists – such as Warhol,
Lichtenstein, Prince, Basquiat, Longo, Kusama Haring, Murakami and Hirst, among
others.

Eva Violante is
a trained gemologist with extensive experience evaluating diamonds, estate
jewelry, and timepieces. She is the Fine Jewelry Director in Heritage Auctions'
growing New York office.

 

Early in her
career, Eva's interest in luxury and design brought her to renowned fashion
houses such as Diane Von Furstenberg and Anne Fontaine where she worked in
marketing and brand strategy. Since 2007, Violante worked as a jewelry and
watch buyer for CIRCA, one of Madison Avenue's largest jewelry firms. Most
recently, she lived and worked in Madrid, Spain as an International Buyer where
she honed her skills evaluating diamonds, antique jewels and watches.

 

She is a GIA
certified grader of diamonds and colored stones. Fluent in Spanish, Violante
also is a member of the Women's Jewelry Association and the American Society of
Jewelry Historians.

 

Nigel Russell was educated at Vassar College and the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studied Photographic Science and Engineering. He started his career in 1979 at Sotheby's London cataloguing antique cameras and scientific instruments and instituted Sotheby's first auctions devoted solely to cameras, photographic viewers and optical toys. In 1981 he transferred to Sotheby's New York as Assistant Departmental Director of the Collectibles Department and was responsible for the auction of the Dobran Collection of Photographica, the first sale of its kind in America.

After leaving Sotheby's Russell became the curator of the Spira Collection, New York, a private collection of approximately 20,000 items relating to the history of photography. He remained there until 1999, then working at Swann Auction Galleries as the Photographs & Camera Specialist. Subsequent to Swann"s, Russell was back at Sotheby's as the Director of the Photographs Department for Sothebys.com and at Christie's New York as a Photographs Specialist. He also consulted on antique and collectible cameras for Adorama, New York and WestLicht Photographica Auctions, Vienna.

From November 2005 to March 2006, Nigel was a photography consultant for the National Counsel for Culture, Art & Heritage, Doha, Qatar and worked as Photography Curator for the Qatar Museums Authority from November 2006 until March 2013.

Nigel is a major contributor to "The History of Photography As Seen Through The Spira Collection," published by Aperture in the fall of 2001 and co-author of "Spirit Capture: Photographs from the National Museum of the American Indian," published by the Smithsonian in the fall of 1998 as well as a contributor to various photography magazines. He was a member of the advisory committee of the Technology Department of the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House and has also lectured on the Photography Auction Market and Collecting Photographica.

Richard Cervantes is Consignment Director for Asian Art, New York. His expertise in the identification, valuation, marketing and sale of fine Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian works of art was developed over ten years as a specialist and eventual department head at a major East Coast auction house. Prior to his career in auction, Richard was a scholar and educator in the fields of Ancient History and Italian Literature. He has frequently presented to private and trade audiences on Asian Art and textile topics and is a featured appraiser on PBS' Antiques Roadshow.