20 September 2011
The National Museum of Australia has acquired a significant collection of Olympic medals and official clothing won by swimmer John Konrads at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.
John Konrads was a child immigrant from Latvia who learned to swim at a migrant hostel and went on to set 26 individual world records. His inclusion in the 1956 Olympic team just before his 14th birthday made him Australia's youngest male Olympian.
'The Konrads medals add a significant dimension to the National Museum's many Australian Olympic stories and migrant stories. We are delighted that such stories can be shared with all our visitors through collections such as this, their rightful public home in the Museum,' said Andrew Sayers, Director of the National Museum of Australia.
John Konrads Olympic medals were stolen in a housebreak in 1985 but recovered 23 years later.
The National Museum of Australia paid $37,078.10 including GST and auction house commission, for the medals, clothing and items from John Konrads' collection.
John Konrads has a distinguished career in Australian corporate life. For more than a decade, he was Managing Director of the Australasian operations for the world's largest personal care products company L'Oreal. He then went on to be General Marketing Manager for Ansett in the lead up to airline deregulation.
For more information about the acquisition visit: http://nma.gov.au/collections/john_konrads_medals/
For interviews, images and more information please contact Dennis Grant on 02 6208 5351, 0409 916 481; Caroline Vero on 02 6208 5338, 0438 620 710; or media@nma.gov.au