The Andrew Oliver and Diana Buitron-Oliver research materials collection

Diana Buitron-Oliver (1947-2002), an expert in the art and archaeology of Ancient Greece, was born in 1947 in Ecuador. She received a BA from Smith College and an MA and PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she studied the works of the Greek vase-painter Douris, about whom she would go on to become one of the world's leading authorities. After beginning her career at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, she served as Curator of the Greek and Roman Department at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland from 1977 to 1984. Dr. Buitron was a dedicated teacher as well as scholar, and was part of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University beginning in 1988, teaching Greek art. She served as the curator of two exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art: The Human Figure in Early Greek Art and The Greek Miracle: Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy, the Fifth Century B.C. Dr. Buitron also curated several other exhibitions, including The Odyssey and Ancient Art at Bard College and The Birth of Democracy at the National Archives. Dr. Buitron worked in Cyprus from 1978-1982, directing the excavations of the archaic Greek Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates at Kourion. She and her husband, Drew Oliver, served professional organizations such as the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia, and the Archaeological Institute of America. Diana Buitron-Oliver died in 2002, in Washington, DC.

Andrew Oliver received an AB from Harvard University and an MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He has held curatorial and directorial positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the John D. Rockefeller III Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Textile Museum in Washington, DC. In addition, he has participated in archaeological excavations and has published widely on ancient decorative arts. In 1978, he married Diana Buitron who shared his passion for travel and the ancient world. In 2009, in memory of his late wife, he donated a collection of materials they had gathered in three decades of research and scholarship on the ancient Mediterranean world.