A Fabergé egg, a symbol of the Russian empire, was sold for a record-breaking price at Christie’s London.
On Tuesday, the egg came up on the auction block with 48 other lots from Fabergé. It ended up being sold for £22.9 million (around $30.2 million), a record-breaking price for the Fabergé eggs. It also represented the bulk of the £27.8 million ($37.1 million) revenue that came from the evening. It cannot be said that this was a complete surprise. The Winter Egg was the main attraction of the auction, as could be seen from the title of the event, “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection.” However, few expected it to set a new record for the iconic royal jewels.
The Winter Egg was one of the many eggs created by Fabergé, the legendary jewelers who began in 1842 in Russia. They are best known for making these fabled eggs for the Romanovs, the Russian royal family, between 1885 and 1917. A total of 50 such eggs are documented to have been created. Of these, seven are considered lost, and seven are in private collections, leaving only 36 eggs in the market worldwide. The rarity of the eggs has made them one of the most sought-after objects in the art market.
The Winter Egg was designed by Alma Theresia Pihl, one of the few female designers at the time, and created by Albert Holmström, who was her uncle and the chief jeweler at Fabergé. The Winter Egg is considered one of the most beautiful creations among all the eggs ever created, thanks to its crystal structure adorned by more than 4,000 diamonds.
