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A precious Faberge egg, bought for a few thousand dollars at a market in the US, is going on show to the public for the first time in more than a century. The scrap dealer who stumbled across it had planned to sell the egg for second-hand gold.
This golden egg has been making headlines around the world. The Third Imperial Faberge Easter Egg was thought lost after being sold by Soviets in 1922 following the revolution. It disappeared for decades, before resurfacing at a flea market in the American Midwest earlier this year.
A precious Faberge egg, bought for a few thousand dollars
at a market in the US, is going on show to the public for the
first time in more than a century.
It was snapped up by an anonymous scrap metal dealer for 14,000 US dollars, who thought he could make a small profit by re-selling it for its gold content. But the egg was something far more special and valuable than that, says Kieran McCarthy, a Faberge specialist.
"This is one of the fifty Imperial Faberge Easter eggs and so in that level it’s incredibly rare because Faberge Easter eggs are the very highest point of the goldsmith’s art. But within those fifty there are eight missing eggs and this is the only one of the missing eggs ever to have been found and so therefore on that level, it is unique." said Kieran Mccarthy, Faberge Specialist.
The egg, which contains a Vacheron Constantin watch, sits on a jewelled gold stand and was given by Russia’s Alexander III to his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna in Easter 1887.
McCarthy says that to the scrap metal dealer it’s about more than the money.
"It’s a life-changing moment and it’s a life-changing amount of money also for them. But I think they were grasped by how wonderful it was that in a million lifetimes this event could not happen, yet it had happened to them. And, I think that beyond all of the materialistic benefits that have come from it for them, I think perhaps they’re more in love with the idea that just fate could have served them this egg." said Kieran Mccarthy, Faberge Specialist.
A precious Faberge egg, bought for a few thousand dollars
at a market in the US, is going on show to the public for
the first time in more than a century.
While original Faberge eggs have for years been exhibited, such as here at an exhibition in St Petersburg, this is the first time in 112 years that the egg unearthed in America will be seen in public. McCarthy says this egg’s discovery raises his hopes of finding the remaining missing items.
"Of those eight that are missing, five are not recorded after the revolution so they are thought to have been missing," said Kieran Mccarthy, Faberge Specialist.
"Which with this one being discovered leaves two more which might very well be found and, who knows, perhaps this miracle might just create another miracle."
The Third Imperial Faberge Easter Egg will be on display at Wartski’s London showroom from 14 to 17 April 2014.
