Who Are We?
Vals Osborne and José Moreno-Lacalle are both art historians by training, but engaged in many activities, as they both share a passion for antiques as well as fine and decorative arts (they are collectors), but also ballet, chamber music, opera, theater, travel abroad and stateside, fine dining, and fine wine.
About Vals
Vals is a real-estate broker who has worked since 1992 with Stribling & Associates in lower Manhattan, representing both buyers and sellers of important properties in the prime downtown and uptown neighborhoods. Her sales include historic townhouses, prewar apartments, lofts and investment properties. The first woman director of education at Young Presidents' Organization, she was also founding director of Sotheby's Institute, N.A., where she created graduate-level programs on American and European art and architecture. She has renovated two downtown lofts and is in the process of restoring her historic 1831 home in Ulster County. Vals is also an avid preservationist and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and founded the Brokers' Partnership with GVSHP. In addition, she actively supports land conservation, and has already granted easement rights to her farm to the Wallkill Valley Land Trust, of which she is a board member. Her own special passions are gardening at the farm and collecting antiques.
About José
José is a retired educator (Art History, History, and Spanish) who used to teach in NY private schools. He has also lectured on subjects as diverse as art forgery and archaeology. In addition, he worked for 16 years as a Senior Programmer/Developer for Sotheby's IT. Since 1969 he has also maintained a translation/interpreting service, Translation International. He now serves as a consultant in various fields, including translation and interpreting, database design and development, education, and wine. He is the designer and developer of this Website and the author of the two blogs, Polymath and Wine, Seriously. He started writing about wine in 1970, later earned a WSET Advanced Certification in Wine with Merit, and now holds a WSET Diploma in Wine & Spirits (DWS). Other passions include photography (nearly all of the images in the picture albums on the site are by him) and art music--mostly classical but jazz as well.