diff --git a/swh/storage/in_memory.py b/swh/storage/in_memory.py
--- a/swh/storage/in_memory.py
+++ b/swh/storage/in_memory.py
@@ -618,7 +618,8 @@
             if rel['id'] not in self._releases:
                 rel = copy.deepcopy(rel)
                 rel['date'] = normalize_timestamp(rel['date'])
-                self._person_add(rel['author'])
+                if rel['author']:
+                    self._person_add(rel['author'])
                 self._objects[rel['id']].append(
                     ('release', rel['id']))
                 self._releases[rel['id']] = rel
diff --git a/swh/storage/sql/40-swh-func.sql b/swh/storage/sql/40-swh-func.sql
--- a/swh/storage/sql/40-swh-func.sql
+++ b/swh/storage/sql/40-swh-func.sql
@@ -660,6 +660,7 @@
 begin
     with t as (
         select distinct author_fullname as fullname, author_name as name, author_email as email from tmp_release
+        where author_fullname is not null
     ) insert into person (fullname, name, email)
     select fullname, name, email from t
     where not exists (
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_storage.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_storage.py
--- a/swh/storage/tests/test_storage.py
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_storage.py
@@ -1110,6 +1110,20 @@
         actual_result = self.storage.release_add([self.release, self.release2])
         self.assertEqual(actual_result, {'release:add': 0})
 
+    def test_release_add_no_author_date(self):
+        release = self.release.copy()
+        release['author'] = None
+        release['date'] = None
+
+        actual_result = self.storage.release_add([release])
+        self.assertEqual(actual_result, {'release:add': 1})
+
+        end_missing = self.storage.release_missing([self.release['id']])
+        self.assertEqual([], list(end_missing))
+
+        self.assertEqual(list(self.journal_writer.objects),
+                         [('release', release)])
+
     def test_release_get(self):
         # given
         self.storage.release_add([self.release, self.release2])