Fabergé Egg Sells for $18.5 Million
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A rare enamel-and-gold Faberge egg that had been in the Rothschild banking family for more than a century sold for record $18.5 million at auction Wednesday.
The sale of the translucent pink egg topped with a diamond-studded cockerel was the highest for a Faberge work of art, Christie’s auction house said. The price also broke the record for Russian artwork, excluding paintings, easily beating the $9.6 million paid for a Faberge egg in New York in 2002, Christie’s said.
“It holds an amazing fascination for just about everybody, from James Bond onwards as far as I remember,” said Anthony Philips, Christie’s Russian art specialist. “It’s just a magic name. The quality is fantastic. There’s a romantic association with the Russian Revolution. They’re of stunning workmanship.”
Prices for Russian art have escalated as the country’s increased wealth makes its way on to the international art market.
