Nicholas B.A. Nicholson was born in New York City and graduated from Kenyon College. He began his career working for a premier dealer in continental furniture and decorative arts. He joined Christie’s Continental Furniture and Decorative Arts department in the early 1990s, where he was involved in the cataloguing and auctions of Alice Tully, Bernheimer & Co., and Rudolf Nureyev. He was quickly promoted to specialist within Christie’s New York Russian Department and sold important Russian works from the estates of Landsell Christie, Jane Englehardt and Frank Sinatra. He also participated in the landmark sale of the Fabergé Imperial 25th Anniversary Clock, which set auction records for Fabergé, clocks, and silver. 

Following Christie’s, Nicholas became the American Curator of Jewels of the Romanovs; Treasures from the Russian Imperial Court, a touring exhibition of works from five Russian lending institutions, including a selection of the Imperial Crown Jewels from the State Diamond Fund of the Russian Federation. 

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By the end of the decade, Nicholson joined an online art consultancy firm and later opened his own, Nicholson Advisory.  Nicholson went to serve as SVP and Division Head of Decorative Arts at Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia, where in 2017 they set a record for Romanov ephemera at auction.  Today, he continues to work as Freeman’s New York Collections Director and Consulting Specialist in Russian Works of Art, as well as serving independently as the Principal of Nicholson Advisory.  Nicholson is the Board Chair of the Merchants’ House Museum in New York City, and is a member of the Collections Committee of the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts.

Nicholas is the author of several books, most recently as editor of Fabergé: The Imperial ‘Empire’ Egg of 1902 (with Nikolai Bachmakov, Tatiana Faberge, Dmitry Krivoshey, Anna & Vincent Palmade and Valentin Skurlov, 2017). Together with his colleague Helen Azar, he co-authored Tatiana Romanov: Daughter of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters 1913-1918, and they are currently at work on an annotated translation of the diaries of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, to be published in 2019.

Nicholas is also a board member of the SEARCH Foundation, which is dedicated to research regarding the murders of the last Russian Imperial Family, and the recovery of the family’s remains.

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He has contributed to “The Romanov Royal Martyrs Project” by offering advice, sharing information and by writing the Epilogue to the book.