‘Exquisite’ jewel-studded Faberge egg sells for world record £22.9 million at London auction
A jewel-studded gift given to the mother of Russia’s last emperor sold for a record £22.9 million at auction in London on Tuesday.
In 1913, Emperor II. Commissioned by Nicholas for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, The Winter Egg is hailed as one of Faberge’s most opulent imperial works.
The egg is finely carved from rock crystal, featuring an engraved ice pattern on the inside, while the outside is adorned with rose-cut diamond-set platinum snowflake motifs.
Christie’s confirmed the sale for £22,895,000 on Tuesday, breaking the previous world auction record for a Faberge work by more than £13 million.
This record was broken in 2007, when the Rothschild Egg brought in £8.9 million.
Christie’s said the Winter Egg had set a record price for a Faberge piece for the third time.
Margo Oganesian, head of Christie’s Faberge and Russian art department, said: “Christie’s is honored to be tasked with the sale of Faberge’s exquisite Winter Egg for the third time in our history.
“Today’s result sets a new world auction record for a work by Faberge, reaffirming the enduring importance of this masterpiece and celebrating the rarity and brilliance of what is widely recognized as one of Faberge’s finest creations, both technically and artistically.
“With only a handful of imperial Easter eggs remaining in private hands, this was an extraordinary and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unique significance.”
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, it was transferred from St Petersburg to the Kremlin Armory in Moscow, along with many other valuables of the royal family.
In the 1920s, the Soviet government began selling art treasures from the Hermitage Museum and other collections, often at a price well below their value.
The Winter Egg was purchased by London antiques dealer Wartski for £450, then sold to a British collector for £1,500 in 1934, then sold to another.
He was believed lost for two decades, from 1975 to 1994; It sold for 7,263,500 Swiss francs (£6.8 million), a world record price at Christie’s at the time.
It was sold in 2002, also by Christie’s, for a world record price of US$9,579,000 (£7.1 million).
