Ada Buch Polak, née Andrea Buch (19 September 1914 – 25 October 2010) was a Norwegian art historian.

She was born in Ljan as a son of engineer Harald Buch (1872–1950) and teacher Camilla Collett (1878–1973). She was a great-granddaughter of writer Camilla Collett

Camilla Collett

Jacobine Camilla Collett was a Norwegian writer, often referred to as the first Norwegian feminist. She was also the younger sister of Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland, and is recognized as being one of the first contributors to realism in Norwegian literature...

 and Peter Jonas Collett, grandniece of Robert

Robert Collett

Robert Collett was a Norwegian zoologist. He worked with vertebrates, primarily fishes. From 1864 he was curator at the Zoological Museum in Oslo. In 1882 he became its director and from 1884 was a professor there...

 and Alf Collett

Alf Collett

Alf Collett was a Norwegian writer.He published many historical and genealogical works, the most important being En gammel Christiania-slægt. Optegnelser om familien Collett og Christianias fortid and Gamle Christiania-Billeder .Alf Collett was the second son of Peter Jonas and Camilla Collett...

. She finished

Examen artium

Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...

 her secondary education in 1933 and graduated from the University of Oslo

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

 in 1940 with the thesis Norsk Glass 1739–1753, and continued working with glass to take her doctorate in 1953 on the thesis Gammelt norsk glass.

She spent half a year as an associate professor at the Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design

Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design

The Norwegian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design is a museum in Oslo, Norway. Since 2003 it is administratively a part of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design.-History:...

, and was then a curator at Vestlandske Kunstindustrimuseum from 1942 to 1948. In July 1948 she married British solicitor Alfred Laurence Polak (1900–1992), and moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Her sister Ellisiv married Sverre Steen

Sverre Steen

Sverre Steen was a Norwegian historian, a professor at the University of Oslo, and known to the public through his radio series Langsomt ble landet vårt eget...

.

Polak spent the rest of her career as a freelance writer, in books, journals and yearbooks, magazines and newspapers. She was on a state scholarship since the early 1980s. She was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...

, and was decorated as a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1981, and died in October 2010 in London.