A Fabergé Imperial Winter Egg, commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift for his mother, sold for a record US$30 million (about R$160 million) at auction on Tuesday (2).
Carved from rock crystal and adorned with platinum snowflake decorations set with rose-cut diamonds, it is considered one of the finest creations for the Imperial family, according to Christie’s.
Sitting on a crystal base made to look like melted ice, the egg is engraved internally with a frost design. It is designed to open and reveal a surprise: an intricate bouquet of flowers.
The egg was offered in the Dec. 2 auction, “The Winter Egg and Fabergé’s Important Works from a Princely Collection,” during Christie’s “Classic Week” of auctions. It was listed with a “price estimate upon request; in excess of £20 million” (around R$70 million). It sold for £22,895,000, marking the third time it has set a record, Christie’s said in a statement on Tuesday.
Christie’s had previously sold the Winter’s Egg in Geneva in 1994 and in New York in 2002. Both times, it set a world record price for a Fabergé item sold at auction. In New York, it sold for US$9.6 million.
In 2007, the Rothschild Fabergé Egg sold for $18.5 million at a Christie’s auction.
“This is one of the Imperial Easter Eggs created by Fabergé for the Romanovs. And the Winter Egg is arguably the best of them all,” Margo Oganesian, head of Christie’s Fabergé and Russian works of art department, told Reuters at a press preview on Nov. 27.
“It was commissioned in 1913 as a gift from Nicholas II to his mother, Maria Feodorovna. And it is incredible in its design, in its craftsmanship, in the technique that Fabergé used, in the story behind it.”
The sale is one of several that Christie’s is holding during its “Classic Week,” which runs from December 2 to 11.
Among the highlights of its “Old Masters Evening Sale,” also on December 2, is Dutch artist Gerrit Dou’s first depiction of a musician, “The Pied Piper.” His estimate is £2 million to £3 million.
A Rembrandt print valued at £1.5 million to £2.5 million is on offer in the December 3 sale, “Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn – Part III.”
