Jeffrey Harold Loria (born November 20, 1940) is an American art dealer, author, and the former owner of the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals) and Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. Early life Loria was born and raised in a Jewish family in Manhattan, the son of Ruth (Ost) and Walter J. Loria, a lawyer. Loria took an early interest in baseball, attending his first New York Yankees game in the late 1940s. Loria attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School and Yale University, where he initially took pre-med courses. With a requirement to take a history class, Loria chose art history. After college, he worked in a newly established art-buying program for Sears, launched with the help of actor Vincent Price. In 1965, at the age of 24, he opened his private art dealing business, Jeffrey H. Loria & Co., on Manhattan's Upper East Side and wrote a book, Collecting Original Art. He specializes in 20th-century masters, and his collection includes works by Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore. Loria graduated from Columbia Business School in 1968 and published his second book, What's It All About Charlie Brown?. Co-written with Pat K. Lynch, it is a look at life through the Peanuts comic strip. Montreal Expos In 1989, Loria purchased the Oklahoma City 89ers, then a Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. The team won the American Association championship in 1992. Loria sold the team in 1993 and began looking to buy a Major League team. He lost out to Peter Angelos in his bid to purchase the Baltimore Orioles in 1994. On December 9, 1999, he bought a 24 percent stake in the Montreal Expos for $18 million CAD (approximately $12 million USD) and became the managing general partner. He'd initially considered buying the team in 1991 from founding owner Charles Bronfman, but Bronfman balked at Loria's demand for a controlling interest and the team was subsequently sold to then-team president Claude Brochu instead. Loria headed an ownership group that included the city of Montreal, several Montreal businesses, and Stephen Bronfman, Charles' son. When a series of cash calls over the next two years went unanswered, Loria ended up with 93 percent of the team at a valuation of US$50 million. One of Loria's first acts was to reiterate demands for a new park for the Expos to replace Olympic Stadium, of which he bluntly said, "We cannot