Excluding associated charges, one of the final Fabergé eggs held privately was sold on Tuesday for £22.9 million (equivalent to $30.2 million), setting a new benchmark as the most valuable piece by the Russian artisan ever offered in a public sale.
The Winter Egg, which Tsar Nicholas II commissioned in 1913 as a tribute to his mother, was acquired by an unnamed bidder following a brief three-minute contest at the London venue of Christie’s auction house. This exceptional price surpassed Christie’s initial projection of £20 million ($26 million).
This staggering valuation underscores the increasing scarcity of the Imperial Eggs crafted by the House of Fabergé; not one has surfaced at auction in more than 23 years. The esteemed St. Petersburg jewelry establishment produced just fifty of these items, and the Winter Egg remains one of only seven currently in private possession. The remainder are either unaccounted for or reside within the holdings of established organizations or museums.
In a statement delivered via email, Margo Oganesian, who leads Christie’s division for Fabergé and Russian art, indicated that this new record “reaffirmed the lasting importance” as well as the “scarcity and splendor of what is broadly viewed as one of Fabergé’s supreme achievements, both in terms of technique and artistry. This represented a unique and historic moment for collectors to secure a piece of unmatched historical significance.”
These elaborately jeweled eggs were created for Nicholas II and his predecessor, Alexander III, who presented them as gifts for family celebrations during Easter between 1885 and 1916. The process of designing and manufacturing each one took roughly a year, with the tsars usually placing orders for the intricate pieces soon after the previous one was delivered.
Before the sale on Tuesday, Oganesian characterized the Winter Egg as “the most visually striking, creatively resourceful, and unconventional” among the fifty produced.
“The majority adhere to established historical aesthetics—like Rococo or Neoclassicism—yet the Winter Egg stands distinct in its own stylistic realm,” she explained in a conversation with CNN, further noting that “its design possesses a timeless quality; it looks remarkably contemporary.”
Crafted predominantly from rock crystal, or transparent quartz, the Winter Egg was envisioned to resemble a block of ice lightly dusted with crystallization. Its exterior showcases a pattern of snowflakes fashioned from platinum and inlaid with 4,500 rose-cut diamonds. Concealed within is one of Fabergé’s signature inclusions, or “surprises”: a delicate, suspended bouquet of wood anemones fashioned from white quartz, nephrite, and garnets.
Unusually for that era, the design for the Winter Egg was the creation of a female artisan, Alma Pihl. Folklore suggests Pihl, who was the niece of Fabergé’s lead gem-setter Albert Holmström, conceived the idea after observing ice formations gathering on a pane of glass near her workspace.
Invoices released by Christie’s show that Nicholas II acquired it for 24,600 rubles, which was the third-highest price Fabergé ever commanded for a commissioned piece.
According to Kieran McCarthy, co-managing director at Wartski, a British dealership specializing in artifacts by Peter Carl Fabergé, the selling price of the Winter Egg reflects the mastery required to transform “precious resources into an ephemeral natural scene.”
He elaborated in a discussion with CNN before the auction that the thousands of diamonds are so minute they possess “no inherent monetary worth.” He continued, “The value is derived entirely from the artistic expression embedded within them and their application in realizing this dazzling vision of frost.”
Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, which saw the dissolution of Nicholas II’s imperial administration, the Winter Egg passed through numerous private hands. It was among the valuables liquidated by the Bolsheviks to generate revenue for the nascent Soviet state, and was bought by Wartski in the late 1920s or 1930s for a mere £450 (approximately $30,000 in today’s currency). Subsequently, it was retained within various private British collections before vanishing in 1975.
The egg resurfaced in 1994, realizing more than 7.2 million Swiss francs (valued then at $5.6 million) at a Christie’s auction in Geneva. This event established a new record for a Fabergé egg at auction—a record it would surpass again in New York in 2002, when it was sold for $9.6 million.
That marked the last occasion an Imperial Egg was offered publicly, although in 2007, an egg adorned with jewels that Fabergé made for a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty sold for upwards of £8.9 million (approximately $18.5 million at that time). In 2015, an anonymous American individual purchased a long-lost Imperial Egg (estimated by some experts to be worth £20 million, or $33 million at the time) for only $14,000 at a street market; this piece has yet to appear in an auction setting.
The Winter Egg was part of a broader event featuring nearly fifty other objects from the House of Fabergé—ranging from jeweled lockets and ornate boxes to charming miniatures—consigned for sale by an unnamed royal figure. Maintaining its discretion regarding client confidentiality, Christie’s merely described the provenance as a “princely collection.”
At the same auction, a figurine carved from hardstone depicting a street artist commanded the second-highest price of the evening, bringing in £1.5 million ($2 million). Other notable high-value items included a scarce, illustrated volume cataloging over 1,000 Fabergé creations, which realized £508,000 (around $670,865).
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