Julie Sylvester is Associate Curator of Contemporary Art of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and is the Hermitage's first non-Russian curator. She is the author of John Chamberlain A Catalogue Raisonne of the Sculpture. Cy Twombly at the Hermitage was the second major contemporary exhibition in the history of the State Hermitage Museum.

British historian Simon Schama has written numerous award-winning books on the cultural histories of countries including Holland and France, and is the author of the three-volume History of Britain. He is currently a professor at Columbia University, New York.