UK/FILE: Rothschild Faberge egg fetches a record price when it sold at an auction of Russian art works

Record ID: 723385

  • Title: UK/FILE: Rothschild Faberge egg fetches a record price when it sold at an auction of Russian art works
  • Date: 30th November 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF AUCTION SALES OF MINIATURES CHRISTIE'S AUCTION ASSISTANTS ON PHONES TO BIDDERS BUYER LOOKING AT CATALOGUE AUCTIONEER HAMMERING DOWN SALE
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVAAHWJHD29QJQCPGLS47LSSE2R
  • Story Text: A unique Rothschild Faberge egg sells for 9 million pounds at Christie's Russian Auction.
    A previously unrecorded Faberge egg fetched nine million pounds (18.5 million USD) on Wednesday (November 28), setting an auction record for the jeweller, any Russian art object and any timepiece.
    The translucent pink egg contains a clock and animated cockerel and had never been seen in public before the sale was announced.
    A spokesman for Christie's said a tense auction room burst into applause when the hammer went down. The piece, not publicly documented when it was made in 1902 for the Rothschild family, went to an unidentified private Russian buyer, he added.
    The egg is the highlight of a five-day sale of Russian 19th- and 20th century art at Christie's in London.
    Faberge's eggs have become a byword for opulence and luxury ever since the young jeweller was commissioned in 1885 by Tsar Alexander III of Russia to make one as a gift for his wife Maria.
    According to Christie's experts, there are only two other known Faberge eggs featuring both a clock and an automaton.
    In this case the automaton is in the form of a diamond-set cockerel which pops up, flaps its wings, nods its head, opens and shuts its beak and crows every hour.
    The Rothschild Faberge Egg is exceptionally large with vary-coloured gold work and translucent pink enamel.
    Speaking to Reuters on Tuesday (November 27) the International Head of Russian Art at Christie's, Alexis de Tiesenhausen said that what is unique about the egg is that it belonged to a single family for over a hundred years.

    "The uniqueness of this egg is that basically it was unknown to the great public. We were approached 20 years ago to evaluate and sort of for the last 20 years slowly but surely we put the full story together. It's a unique egg not because it only belongs to Rothschild but it's an egg which basically since it was purchased in 1902 stayed in the same family. I mean it's probably the only egg of this size produced by the workshop of Faberge which stayed for more than one hundred years in the same family," he said.
    Another highlight of the auction is the Somov Collection, which offers 53 lots related to Konstantin Andreevich Somov, a well known Russian painter who was born in Russia and immigrated to France before dying in the late 1930's. De Tiesenhausen points out that this collection was previously unknown to the public.

    "This is a group of work which basically were totally unknown to the public. They were kept by family very close to Somov. The second excitement of this collection is that they had no idea what they had. They knew that Somov was important, they knew that Somov is very much present in Russian museum. And we discovered this amazing cache of works which gives you full spectrum of what he was able to do," said de Tiesenhausen.
    The pre-auction viewings at Christie's offered the members of the public a unique chance to see the Russian masterpieces. Sam Cummings came all the way from South Carolina to see the sale of the painting he is offering.

    "The painting has been in the family since 1930 and we've had it since that time and was bought in Russia in 1930 by my father in-law who brought it over to the United States," he said.
    Also part of Russian week, Christie's held a sale of Russian miniatures depicting members of the Imperial Family and key military and cultural figures.
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