Rare Faberge ‘winter egg’ expected to fetch over $26M at London auction

By Asiye Latife Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - A rare Faberge egg, adorned with crystal and diamonds and created for Russia’s imperial family before the 1917 revolution, is going up for auction with an estimated value exceeding $26 million.

Christie’s auction house announced that the Winter Egg, one of only seven such lavish Faberge eggs still privately owned, will be offered for sale at its London headquarters on Tuesday.

The 4-inch-tall egg is crafted from intricately carved rock crystal, adorned with a platinum snowflake design set with 4,500 diamonds, and opens to reveal a miniature basket of bejewelled quartz flowers representing spring.

Margo Oganesian, head of Christie’s Russian art department, compared the Winter Egg to an extravagant Kinder Surprise, describing it as a masterpiece of craftsmanship and design, “the ‘Mona Lisa’ of decorative arts,” she said.

It is expected to exceed the $18.5 million record set in 2007 at Christie’s for a Faberge egg made for the Rothschild family.

Of the 43 surviving imperial Faberge eggs, the majority are held in museum collections.