Nicholas Lowry

Nicholas, alias Nicho (1967) is an American with Czech roots who was born and raised in New York, where he is the third generation of a family of antiquarian book dealers. He is the president and chief auctioneer of Swann Galleries in New York, and is also the director of the auction house’s vintage posters department. Lowry, a graduate of Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history, is a seasoned expert on the history of graphic design and posters. An internationally recognised authority on vintage posters, he also appears on the television series PBS Antiques Roadshow in the US. He is a consultant and the author of essays, articles, books and lectures on the subject. He lived in Prague from 1990 to 1994, contributed to the newspaper Prognosis and hosted a radio programme on Prague’s Radio 1. It was during this period that his lifelong passion for collecting historical Czech posters was born. Thanks to the combination of his profession, numerous personal collections and family history, he has curated a number of important international exhibitions on Czech posters in Europe and the USA. In 2001, he co-curated an exhibition at the Czech Centre in New York, Czech Posters Between the Wars, which was produced in cooperation with Petr Štembera and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. He is also featured in the 2019 Canadian feature documentary Knihkupci (The Booksellers). He is a member of the advisory board of the Poster House Museum and a member of the board of directors of the National Arts Club in New York.