Nicolas Iljine (born September 10, 1944, Paris) is a German, French and Russian author, editor, curator, art consultant and best known as the advisor to the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum. Among his publications are the 2003 book Odessa Memories, and he co-authored and edited Memories of Baku in 2013. Many of his books and exhibitions have involved the Russian and Western art of the 1920s-2010s, including the Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings. In 2006, Iljine was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship. Early life Nicolas V. Iljine was born on September 10, 1944, the son of Russian immigrants. His father was Professor Vladimir Nikolayevich Iljine, a famous Russian Orthodox theologian and philosopher. His parents had fled Russia for their anti-Communist sentiments, and his father at one point had authored a book titled Communism: The Death of Culture. As a child Nick Iljine developed a keen interest in visiting Russia himself. He was educated in Great Britain and France, studied mathematics at the Sorbonne, and then specialized in public relations. He speaks fluent English, Russian, French, and German. Iljine started his career in 1964 working at a travel agency. He first visited Russia in 1965, with a team of psychologists who were holding their World Congress in Moscow. Career Business Lufthansa, early exhibitions From 1968 to 1994 Iljine worked at Lufthansa, the flagship airline company of Germany. He started in marketing and sales and in 1971 he moved to the public relations department, eventually serving as their general manager for public affairs. While working at Lufthansa Iljine began to study modern art, as his job acquainted him with artists, gallery owners, and museums. As a member of the Friendship Society of the USSR-FRG in the 1970s-1980s, Iljine executed a number of cultural exchange programs and events. In 1976 he helped organize a film festival in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Munich, focusing on films made in Russia under the Soviet Union, such as the oft-censored Agony. Starting in the early 1980s he began to gain experience with cultural exchange with Russia. He has stated that in 1988, "it occurred to me that we should show the world the Russian culture - what our country really is. And I came up with The Great Utopia - a retrospective of Russian avant-garde completely, inside and out, from 1913 to 1932." It led to his association with Thomas Krens, the future head of