Fabergé egg fetches record $30.2 million

The Imperial Winter Egg, considered one of Fabergé’s finest creations
for the Russian royal family, has sold for $30.2m in London, shattering
the previous auction record for a Fabergé egg set in 2007


WINTER EGG: Carved in rock crystal and adorned with rose-cut diamond-set platinum snowflake decorations

Surprise: Egg opens to reveal intricately crafted bouquet of wood anemones – first flowers to bloom after Russia’s frigid winter

Crystal base
Made to look 
like melting 
ice

Inside: Engraved 
with frost design

10 cm


Commissioned in 1913 as Easter 
gift from Nicholas II to his mother, 
Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna

Bouquet
White 
quartz 
petals on 
gold wire 
stems with 
demantoid garnet 
centres and finely 
carved nephrite leaves

Alma Pihl: Designer 
of Winter Egg

WINTER EGG RECORD SALES
Year	Christie’s auction	Price
1994	Geneva			$5.6 million
2002	New York		$9.6 million		
2025	London			$30.2 million

Breaks record of $18.5m paid in
2007 for Rothschild Fabergé Egg


IMPERIAL EGGS: Of 50 eggs created from 1885 to 1916 
for Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, only 43 survived

In institutions or museums: 36
Missing: 7
In private hands: 7


Sources: Christie’s, Fabergé, Reuters, Forbes
Pictures: Christie’s
© GRAPHIC NEWS