Faberge winter egg sells for €10.7m
The Winter Egg, a Russian Imperial Easter egg produced by the jeweller Carl Faberge, sold for nearly $9.6m (€10.7m) in New York today.
The egg was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder against fierce competition, Christie’s auction house said.
‘‘The final price for The Winter Egg exceeded even our highest expectations,’’ said Alexis de Tiesenhausen, head of Russian works of art at Christie’s. The egg last sold for $5.6m (€6.3m) at Christie’s Geneva in 1994.
The egg, embellished with more than 3,000 diamonds, was given by Tsar Nicholas II to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, on Easter 1913. It contains a basket of delicate spring flowers symbolising the rebirth and seasonal change associated with Easter.
Faberge created 50 eggs for the Russian royal family between 1885 and 1916. The whereabouts of only 44 of the Imperial eggs is known, Christie’s said.
The auction price of The Winter Egg - $9,579,500 (€10,741,357) - includes a buyer’s premium of 19.5% on the first $100,000 (€112,129) and 10% on the cost above that.
