Fabergé egg fetches record $30.2 million at rare auction

One of the last Fabergé eggs in private hands sold for £22.9 million ($30.2 million), with fees, on Tuesday, breaking its own record as the most expensive work by the Russian jeweler ever to appear at auction.

Commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as a gift for his mother in 1913, the Winter Egg went to an unidentified buyer following a 3-minute bidding battle at Christie’s auction house in London. The record sum slightly exceeded Christie’s pre-sale estimate of £20 million ($26 million).

The astronomical price tag reflects the growing rarity of the House of Fabergé’s Imperial Eggs, none of which has been seen at auction in over 23 years. The historic St. Petersburg jewelry house only ever made 50 of them, and the Winter Egg is one of just seven left in private hands. The others are either missing or owned by institutions or museums.

In an emailed statement, the head of Christie’s Fabergé and Russian artworks department, Margo Oganesian, said that the new record “reaffirmed the enduring significance” and “rarity and brilliance of what is widely regarded as one of Fabergé’s finest creations, both technically and artistically. This was an exceptional and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unparalleled importance.”

The bejeweled eggs were produced for Nicholas II and his predecessor Alexander III, who presented them as Easter gifts to family members between 1885 and 1916. Each took around a year to design and produce, with the tsars typically ordering the ornate items shortly after the latest had been delivered.

Prior to Tuesday’s sale, Oganesian described the Winter Egg as “the most spectacular, artistically inventive and unusual” of the 50.