08/05/2026
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One of America’s foremost antiques experts is bringing decades of art world experience to Newport for a lecture exploring the pursuit of extraordinary discoveries.
John A. Hays — a private art adviser, former deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas, longtime Antiques Roadshow appraiser and leading authority on American furniture — will present “The Thrill of the Chase: Collecting Art in Our Time” on Tuesday, Aug. 11, at Rosecliff.
The 6 p.m. talk, part of the Preservation Society of Newport County’s annual John G. Winslow Lecture series, will spotlight 18th-century Rhode Island-made furniture and the detective work behind uncovering rare masterpieces. Hays will share how expertise, persistence and a bit of luck have reshaped the understanding of some of the nation’s most coveted pieces.
A towering figure in the auction world, Hays joined Christie’s in 1983 and became deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas in 2002, helping orchestrate some of the most celebrated sales in history. Among them were the record-setting 1989 sale of the Nicholas Brown Chippendale desk-and-bookcase, the landmark 2006 Americana collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair featuring Charles Willson Peale’s George Washington at Princeton, the celebrated Peggy and David Rockefeller collection, and the recent sale of Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, which set a record for any depiction of George Washington.
Named in honor of former Preservation Society president and board chairman John G. Winslow, who led the organization from 1977 to 1989, the annual lecture highlights influential voices in art, architecture and preservation.
The lecture begins at 6 p.m. at Rosecliff. Tickets are available at www.newportmansions.org/events/the-thrill-of-the-chase.
