Biography
Emily Olsen is a graduate of the Visual Arts Administration master’s program at New York University. She has a decade of experience in the cultural sector, often at the intersection of art and science.
Since joining the Sotheby’s Science and Popular Culture Team in 2021, Ms. Olsen has contributed to several high-profile sales, including:
• the world-record-setting sale of Gus the Tyrannosaurus Rex (50.1 million) in 2026 and Apex the Stegosaurus (44.6 million) in 2024
• the historic “Buzz Aldrin: American Icon” sale, which totaled $8.2 million in just 68 lots
• the first dinosaur ever to be sold at auction in Asia, a rare juvenile Gryposaurus, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for a realized price of 11,945,000 HKD
• the sale of an articulated Pteranodon skeleton, which realized $3,932,000.
• the first Gorgosaurus fossil to ever come to auction, which realized $6.1 million
• the record-setting sale of “Maximus” the T. rex skull, which realized $6.1 million
• the groundbreaking sale of items from the world of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, which realized $1,536,700 in 6 lots
• and the first manuscript by Tupac Shakur to come to auction, which realized $300,000.
Prior to joining Sotheby’s, Ms. Olsen worked and interned in several museums and exhibition spaces internationally, including the USA Pavilion at the 2015 EXPO in Milan, Italy; the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy; and the Chicago Architecture Biennial in Chicago, IL. Most recently, Ms. Olsen worked at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, which houses the world’s largest collection of espionage artifacts open to the public.
In addition to her professional experience, Ms. Olsen shares her enthusiasm for space history and public engagement as a volunteer science communicator and has participated in several events as a NASA Solar System Ambassador and as a #NASASocial participant.
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