On 11 June 2018, Dr. Sam Segal passed away at his home in Norwich (Norfolk). Segal was an academic biologist and art historian specialized in flower still-lifes.

Sam Segal majored in Biology and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in 1969. His first publication on flower paintings and drawings was an exhibition catalogue in Amsterdam 1970 entitled Boeket in Willet. Encouraged by Prof. J. van Gelder and Prof. J.Q. van Regteren Altena, Segal did more research on the subject, and left the Department of Botanical Ecology at the University of Amsterdam to devote himself to research on art.

Segal published over 110 publications on art, including the 1983 exhibition catalogue A Fruitful Past, which was awarded the Buchelius Prize, and catalogues on Gerard and Cornelis van Spaendonck, Jan Davidsz de Heem and his circle, and Jan van Huysum and his circle. He gave about 70 lectures and courses in many countries, including the United States and Japan. His most recent publication Dutch and Flemish Flower still-life until the 19th century was scheduled to be published by Brill in 2018.

In 2009 Segal donated his photographic archive, which documents some 90,000 paintings and drawings, as well as a large part of his library to the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History. He presented three seventeenth- and eighteenth century paintings to the Amsterdam Museum and a number of drawings and engravings from the sixteenth century onwards to the print room of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and series of rare prints to the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels.

In 2014, the Friends of CODART Foundation organized a public interview of Sam Segal and private collector Brian Capstick as a CODART Patrons Workshop. Fragments of that interview have been published in the article Brian Capstick interviewed by Gerdien Verschoor, CODART eZine 4, Summer 2014.