Faberge Egg Fetches $16.5 Million in London

LONDON—A gold and enamel Faberge egg owned by the Rothschild banking family sold for £8 million ($16.5 million) last night at Christie’s in London, reports Bloomberg, making it the most expensive Russian decorative artwork ever sold by the auction house, surpassing even Faberge’s Imperial Winter Egg, which sold for $9.6 million at Christie’s New York in 2002.

The 1902 object, which features a clock and a diamond-encrusted cockerel that emerges from the top every hour and flaps its wings, was an engagement gift to Baron Edouart de Rothschild and was never publicly displayed until October, when it was shown at a Christie’s exhibition in Moscow. The prestigious jeweler House of Faberge made elaborate Easter eggs for the Russian Imperial family and other wealthy clients from 1885 to 1916.

“It’s going back to Russia,” said the buyer, Alexander Ivanov, a collector of Faberge eggs who heads the Russian National Museum, a private gallery in Moscow. “It is the best and most expensive work by Faberge ever.”