Was a Faberge egg found on Russian oligarch’s yacht? A brief history of jewellery crafted for the tsar’s wife in 1885

The star piece of Viktor Vekselberg’s collection, a 24 millions US dollar, Faberge 1897’s “Coronation Egg,” is displayed at an exhibition in the Kremlin in Moscow in May 2004. A famed collection of nine Faberge imperial eggs went on display in Russia for the first time, brought back to the nation by one of its wealthiest tycoons. AFP

The world of Russia’s oligarchs is all about opulence. They have superyachts and on them are luxuries beyond comprehension. Now authorities in the United States have seized what they suspect is a priceless Faberge egg from a mega boat seized in Fiji.

The $300 million luxurious yacht that is almost as big as a football field and has a helipad is owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. It was sailed by US law enforcement officials from Fiji to the San Diego Bay, where it remains docked, reports CNN.

The bejewelled egg, if authentic, is one of the most interesting items found during the investigation so far. US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco told the Aspen security forum, dedicated to discussing law enforcement’s role in seizing Russian assets on Wednesday, that they’ve been finding some interesting things. “We recovered a Faberge – or alleged Faberge egg – on one of these [yachts] so it just gets more and more interesting.”

What is a Faberge egg?

More than 130 years ago, Tsar Alexander III of Russia told the famous Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge to create an egg made of precious stones for his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna for Easter. It included a ruby pendant and the yolk was made of matt yellow cold.

The egg was a one-time gift but the tsar was impressed that he ordered another jewelled egg the next year. After the first egg, Faberge was given complete creative control and from then on, details about each new piece were kept secret, even for the tsar, until it was unveiled.

The Easter eggs became a tradition that the royals adopted and the tradition continued for three centuries until the end of the House of Romanovs, at the outbreak of the Russian revolution in 1917, according to Town and Country Mag.

How many eggs were made?

Fifty priceless Easter eggs were created for the Russian Imperial family from 1885 to 1916. Ten eggs were produced from 1885 to 1893, during the reign of Emperor Alexander III; 40 more were created later by his heirs.

The eggs were often made in gold, platinum, and other precious metals and studded with diamonds, and crystals.

For example, The Rosebud Egg, created in 1895 and presented by Nicholas II to his wife a few months after their marriage, was adorned with a diamond-set Cupid’s arrow. It was crafted from multi-coloured gold, decorated with bands of rose-cut diamonds and covered with translucent red guilloché enamel. Within the egg, was a diamond crown and ruby drop, according to Faberge’s website.

The Order of St George Egg, 1916 was one of Faberge’s two last completed eggs. Made after the onset of The Great War, when precious metals were rare, it was crafted out of silver and mat opalescent white enamel with no further embellishment. Presented by Nicholas II to his mother, it concealed the Badge of the Order of St George, awarded for great bravery on the war front. The Empress went into exile and took the egg with her.

One of the eight missing imperial Faberge eggs was purchased by a scrap metal dealer in a flea market in the United States. London antique dealer Wartski said the man bought the egg a few years ago for about $14,000, completely unaware that it was worth about $33 million. AFP

Where are the other eggs now?

Of the 50 eggs, 43 are accounted for, according to Town and Country Mag. When the Bolsheviks took St Petersburg, they seized the eggs; some were sold and some they held on to.

The eggs became legendary and sought-after, selling for millions of dollars. It is said that media magnate Malcolm Forbes’ art collection at one time included at least nine Faberge eggs.

One of the most famous eggs – Mosaic Egg – created in 1914 is now part of a collection owned by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The stunning Winter Egg, 1913 is made of rock crystal carved as thin as glass. Embellished with engraving and ornamented with platinum and diamonds to resemble frost, the egg rests on a rock crystal base designed to look like a block of melting ice. The surprise is a platinum basket full of anemones and flowers made of gold and demantoid garnets and studded with 1,378 diamonds. In 2002, the egg was sold at auction for $9.6 million to a private collector, reports Town and Country Mag.

Coronation Egg, 1897 which was presented as a memento of their coronation by Tsar Nicholas II to the empress has a large diamond set on top of it and is adorned with a flower motif with gold petals. It was purchased by Forbes in 1979 and is part of the Viktor Vekselberg Collection housed in the Faberge Museum along with some other Imperial Eggs.

In 2004, Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg purchased a collection of Imperial eggs from Forbes for an estimated $100 million. The former is now on the list of Russia’s many sanctioned billionaires.

Visitors look at the jewelled egg “Laurel tree” created by Peter Carl Faberge at the Faberge Museum in St Petersburg in November 2013. AFP

What about the egg on the Russian yacht?

It remains to be seen if the jewelled egg found on Suleiman Kerimov’s yacht by US authorities was created by the House of Faberge. It is now seized as part of the US justice department’s “KleptoCapture” initiative and a multinational task force called Repo – Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs.

The US and its allies have seized billions of dollars worth of Russian assets since March, according to the treasury department, reports Guardian.

The US Justice Department has asked Congress for permission to give Ukraine the proceeds collected from the seized items.

With inputs from agencies

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