“The Holy Grail of art and antiques.”
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When a scrap dealer picked up a golden ornament at a Midwestern junk market, he had no idea that the egg was an Imperial Russian relic costing tens of millions of dollars.
Beginning in 1885, Russia’s Tsars commissioned famed jeweler Peter Carl Faberge to create a series of jeweled ornaments as Easter presents for their wives and mothers. About 50 eggs were created.
When the Bolsheviks seized power, they stole Tsar Nicholas II’s treasure before massacring him and his family. Disdainful of art and culture, Russia’s Marxist government sold the eggs and other relics as part of the “Treasures into Tractors” program.
In recent years, Russians have worked to gather the eggs and return them to Russian soil. In 2004, Ukranian born Russian magnate Viktor Vekselberg bought a collection of the eggs from the Forbes family. They are now exhibited in the Kremlin.
The man learned of the egg’s value after contacting Kieran McCarthy, director or Wartski jewelers in Mayfair, London. McCarthy is an expert on Faberge’s work.”He handed me a portfolio of photographs,” said McCarthy, “and there was the egg, the Holy Grail of art and antiques.”
