{"id":422840,"date":"2025-12-03T23:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422840\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:27:10","slug":"crystal-egg-crafted-for-russian-royalty-shatters-record-and-sells-for-30-2-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/422840\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal egg crafted for Russian royalty shatters record and sells for $30.2 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON — A rare crystal and diamond Faberg\u00e9 egg<\/a> crafted for Russia\u2019s ruling family before it was toppled by revolution shattered records Tuesday as it sold at auction for 22.9 million pounds ($30.2 million).<\/p>\n

The Winter Egg, which was compared to the iconic Mona Lisa, was just one of seven of the opulent ovoids remaining in private hands, Christie\u2019s London auction house<\/a> said. <\/p>\n

The 4-inch (10-centimeter) tall egg is made from finely carved rock crystal, covered in a delicate snowflake motif wrought in platinum and 4,500 tiny diamonds. It opens to reveal a removable tiny basket of bejewelled quartz flowers symbolizing spring. <\/p>\n

The sale price, which included a buyer’s premium, topped the $18.5 million paid at a 2007 Christie\u2019s auction for another Faberg\u00e9 egg created for the Rothschild banking family.<\/p>\n

Craftsman Peter Carl Faberg\u00e9 and his company created more than 50 of the eggs for Russia\u2019s imperial family between 1885 and 1917, each elaborately unique and containing a hidden surprise. Czar Alexander III started the tradition by presenting an egg to his wife each Easter. His successor, Nicholas II, extended the gift to his wife and mother.<\/p>\n

Czar Nicholas II commissioned the egg for his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, as an Easter present in 1913. It was one of two eggs created by female designer Alma Pihl; her other egg is owned by Britain\u2019s royal family.<\/p>\n

The Romanov royal family ruled Russia for 300 years before the 1917 revolution ousted it. Nicholas and his family were executed in 1918.<\/p>\n

Bought by a London dealer for 450 pounds when the cash-strapped Communist authorities sold off some of Russia\u2019s artistic treasures in the 1920s, the egg changed hands several times. It was believed lost for two decades until it was auctioned by Christie\u2019s in 1994 for more than 7 million Swiss francs ($5.6 million at the time). It sold again in 2002 for $9.6 million.<\/p>\n

Each time the egg has sold, it has set a world record price for a Faberg\u00e9 item, Christie’s said.<\/p>\n

Margo Oganesian, the head of Christie’s Russian art department, called the egg \u201cthe \u2018Mona Lisa\u2019 for decorative arts,” a superb example of craft and design.<\/p>\n

There are 43 surviving imperial Faberg\u00e9 eggs, most in museums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON — A rare crystal and diamond Faberg\u00e9 egg crafted for Russia\u2019s ruling family before it was toppled…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":422841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197298,347,64,171,57,1165,50,15228,45980,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-422840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-197298","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-lifestyle","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-oddities","16":"tag-royalty","17":"tag-world","18":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115658230635735866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}