Winter Egg: Rare Faberge egg covered in diamonds shatters world record fee at London auction
A jewel-studded gift originally given to the mother of Russia’s last emperor has sold for a record £22.9 million at auction in London.
In 1913, Emperor II. The exquisite Winter Egg, commissioned by Nicholas II for Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, is widely hailed as one of Faberge’s most opulent imperial works.
The egg is finely carved from rock crystal and features an intricate carved ice design on the inside.
The 10cm-long egg is made of finely carved rock crystal and encrusted with a delicate snowflake motif set in platinum and 4,500 tiny diamonds.
Christie’s confirmed the £22,895,000 sale on Tuesday; this figure dramatically shattered the previous world auction record for a Faberge work by over £13 million.
This significant record was broken in 2007 when the Rothschild Egg generated £8.9 million. This is the third time the Winter Egg has set a record price for a Faberge piece, Christie’s said.
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.
In 2002 it was sold by Christie’s for another world record price of $9,579,000 (£7.1 million).
