The jewel-studded rare Fabergé egg has been sold for a record £22.9 million ($30.2 million) at a London auction.
According to Independent, the Winter Egg was an Easter gift from Russia’s Emperor Nicholas II for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
The last emperor gifted the egg, which is described as one of the most lavish of Fabergé’s imperial creations, to his mother in 1913.
London auction house Christie’s said that the Fabergé egg on Tuesday, December 2, sold for £22,895,000, breaking the previous record for Fabergé’s work by over £13 million. The Russian jewellery firm’s Rothschild Egg set a record in 2007 after fetching £8.9 million.
Christie also revealed that the recent auction was the third time when the Winter Egg has set a record price for a Fabergé piece.
Margo Oganesian, Christie’s head of department for Fabergé and Russian works, said, “Christie’s is honoured to have been entrusted with the sale of the exquisite Winter Egg by Fabergé for the third time in our history. Today’s result sets a new world auction record for a work by Faberge.”
“(This reaffirms) the enduring significance of this masterpiece and celebrates the rarity and brilliance of what is widely regarded as one of Fabergé’s finest creations, both technically and artistically. With only a handful of imperial Easter eggs remaining in private hands, this was an exceptional and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unparalleled importance,” he noted.
The Winter Egg was previously bought by Wartski for £450, sold to a collector in 1934 for £1,500, lost for 20 years (from 1975 until 1994), then sold at Christie's in 1994 for £6.8 million and again in 2002 for $9.6 million (£7.1 million).
