A Record, Faberge Egg Owned by Tsar Nicholas II Sold for IDR 441 Billion
"Winter Egg" Faberge from the collection of Tsar Nicholas II from Russia sold at auction in London for 19.5 million pounds ($25.5 million) earlier this month, setting a record high for this type of jewelry, auctioneer Yu-Ge Wang said.
"Nineteen million five hundred thousand pounds. Sold!" he said, as reported by TASS on December 20.
Christie's added that the buyer will pay 22.9 million pounds ($30.2 million), including commissions. The offer starts at 17 million pounds ($22.4 million).
Created for the Russian imperial family for Easter 1913, the work was designed by Alma Pihl, a young jewelry maker and daughter of one of the leading craftsmen Carl Faberge.
The Winter Egg Body is made of stone crystals and decorated with carvings that mimic ice crystals. Decorated with more than 4,000 diamonds, this work stands on a crystal base that looks like melting ice.
Inside the egg is a basket containing a bouquet of snow flowers made of quartz and jade. Nicholas II gave the egg as a gift to his mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna.
After the October Revolution, a London trader bought the egg in the 1920s for 450 pounds, and it was resold several times.
The Winter Egg was thought to be lost for a long time until it "reappeared" at a Christie's auction in Geneva in 1994. There, the egg sold for 5.587 million dollars. In 2002, the egg sold for a world record price of 9.58 million dollars at an auction in New York.
Forbes previously reported that this time the egg was auctioned off by the heir to Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Al Thani of Qatar, who bought it in 2002.
It is known that Peter Carl Faberge inherited his father's jewelry workshop in St. Petersburg, and under his management, the workshop began to receive orders from the imperial family. The first famous Faberge egg, the jeweled Easter egg that became the pride of the family, was made by order of Alexander III.
After the 1917 Revolution, all Faberge factories and shops were nationalized. At that time, the workshop had produced 54 imperial Easter eggs and 17 eggs for private clients. The total number of jewelry items made by Faberge and his craftsmen exceeded 150,000.
Soviet authorities sold most of the imperial Faberge Easter eggs abroad in the 1930s. The largest collection is currently on display at the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, which opened in 2013 and has 15 eggs, including 11 imperial eggs purchased by businessman Viktor Vekselberg from a foreign collector, and in the Armory Chamber in Moscow (10). The previous most expensive Faberge Easter egg was the Rothschild egg, which sold for 18.5 million dollars at Christie's auction in 2007.