A Rare Fabergé Egg Sells for a Record-Breaking £23 Million
A stunning, jewel-encrusted Fabergé egg, once belonging to the mother of Russia's last emperor, has fetched an astonishing £22.9 million at a London auction. This vintage masterpiece, known as the Winter egg, was commissioned in 1913 by Emperor Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. It's considered one of the most opulent creations by the renowned jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, who is celebrated as the greatest Russian jeweler of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Winter egg is a masterpiece of craftsmanship, featuring a rock crystal engraved with a frosty design on the inside and rose-cut diamond-set platinum snowflake motifs on the outside. On Tuesday, it shattered the world record for a Fabergé auction, surpassing the previous record set in 2007 when the Rothschild egg sold for £8.9 million. This is the third time the Winter egg has set a record-breaking price for a Fabergé piece, attracting collectors with its rich history.
The egg's journey began with the Russian Revolution in 1917, when it was taken from St. Petersburg to the Kremlin armoury in Moscow, along with other royal treasures. In the 1920s, the Soviet government began selling off art treasures from the Hermitage Museum and other collections, often at a fraction of their value. The Winter egg was later acquired by Wartski of London and sold to a British collector for £1,500 in 1934. For two decades between 1975 and 1994, it was believed to be missing, before being sold for £6.8 million at Christie's. Eight years later, in 2002, the auction house sold it again for £7.1 million.
Margo Oganesian, Christie's head of department for Fabergé and Russian works of art, expressed her honor in being entrusted with the sale of the exquisite Winter egg for the third time in Christie's history. She emphasized the egg's enduring significance, rarity, and brilliance, reaffirming its status as one of Fabergé's finest creations, both technically and artistically. With only a handful of imperial Easter eggs remaining in private hands, this auction presented an exceptional and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unparalleled importance.
