Meet the team
Lily Bua
is the Gallery Manager at Nicholas Hall. She is the first point of contact for client enquiries and appointments. Besides managing our daily operations, she oversees the logistics and cataloguing of artworks.
Prior to joining Nicholas Hall, Lily worked in the Old Master departments at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York. There, she developed a deep appreciation for historic European art and an interest in bringing them to a forward-looking audience. Most recently, she was Account Manager for Valuations at Sotheby’s and Sotheby’s Financial Services (SFS), where she worked for five years on estate tax, insurance, auction estimate appraisals, and managed complex valuations for the purposes of collateral loan and collection management.
A native New Yorker, Lily holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting, with minors in Art History and Italian. She has also completed coursework and examinations in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). During her free time, Lily enjoys making pottery, cooking, and travelling to Italy.
Yuan Fang
is the business partner of Nicholas Hall. Besides directing the gallery’s digital initiatives, she is responsible for the content planning, writing and design of our public-facing projects.
Yuan’s career began in the Old Masters and 19th Century Art department at Christie’s New York before relocating to Hong Kong in 2014 as their first Asia-based specialist. A native of Hangzhou, she grew up between China and the UK. She moved to the U.S. to study chemistry and art history at Duke University, followed by an M.A. in Art History and Archeology from Columbia University. Her training was in the art of the Low Countries and 20th-century art theory but her interest extends well beyond. Yuan is a passionate cook and very much enjoys travelling and meeting people from different cultures, which has brought her to work with Save the Children in Amman, Jordan in her not-so-distant youth.
Nicholas Hall
is a respected art dealer specializing in European Old Masters and Nineteenth Century paintings. Before founding his eponymous gallery in 2016, Nicholas was an International Chairman at Christie’s for twelve years, following their acquisition of his first gallery, Hall & Knight. During his tenure, Nicholas pioneered thematic sales and notably played a central role in the private sale of the Madonna and Child by Duccio to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nicholas’ first job in the art world was at Colnaghi on Old Bond Street, London.
Born in Oxford, U.K., Nicholas has lived in New York since 1983. He read History at the University of Oxford. Having spent much of his formative years travelling to Venice, Nicholas speaks Italian and returns to the lagoons every Spring to teach art history on the John Hall Venice course.