Displaying items by tag: faberge

A long-lost Fabergé treasure has been discovered in the British royal family's art collection: an automaton elephant embellished in diamonds and rubies originally hidden as a "surprise" inside the Diamond Trellis Egg commissioned by czar Alexander III in 1892.

The find was announced this week by Royal Collection Trust senior curator Caroline de Guitaut at a conference at the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg.

A thief who stole £800,000 worth of rare Imperial Russian court Fabergé objects and jewelery from Christie's Auctioneers last December, has gone on trial in London. Richard Tobin, 45, a Glaswegian confessed to the theft from the west end auction house. 

Southwark Crown Court were told that there is still no sign of the missing items. Jack Talbot the suspect's defence lawyer added: "He accepts he took the items. It may be part of the mitigation that he did not know their value." Judge Owen Davies explained to the defendant : "What happened to the property is uppermost in the court's mind. "The court does not have time to consider carefully your case so you will be appearing via video link on April 8. "You will be remanded in custody and you face a long prison sentence."

Once the jewel-encrusted playthings of the Russian royal family, the first Faberge Imperial egg produced in almost a century is set to be unveiled in Qatar, its makers said.

Ninety nine years since Faberge made its last Imperial egg, for Tsar Nicholas II, the famous jewel maker will show off its newest creation at an exhibition of watches and jewelery in Doha.

The "Faberge Pearl Egg" features 139 fine white pearls, and more than 3,300 diamonds as well as other precious gemstones, according to the jeweler.

Several Gulf nations have a long history of pearl diving, and Qatar is building an artificial island off its coast named after the precious treasure.

Thieves have breached stringent security at Christie's London flagship headquarters to pull off a heist valued at up to a million pounds. The stolen items, thought to be mostly jewelery and small antiques, included works by the Russian jewelers Fabergé.

Police have been investigating the theft for two weeks and even though they have CCTV footage, have failed to identify any of the suspects, who may be of an Eastern European background.

Museums and jewelry enthusiasts are no strangers to Cartier’s greatest bijoux creations, but now, a different sort of show lends insight into one of the house’s greatest American clients and collectors, Marjorie Merriweather Post, once the wealthiest woman in the United States.

Founder of General Foods Inc., Post was a socialite and art collector who in 1973 left her estate with a sizable and exquisite French and Russian art collection featuring the work of Fabergé, Sèvres porcelain, French furniture, tapestries, and numerous paintings. But it is her collection of precious jewels, frames and objets d’art that she amassed from the Parisian jeweler that is on exhibition in “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems” at her former home, the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington D.C., until December 31.

A Russian billionaire has accused his ex-wife of secretly selling off pieces of their massive $120 million collection of art, antiques and furniture.

Oil tycoon Shalva Chigirinsky, 62, says in a Manhattan lawsuit that Tatiana Panchenkova, who has accused him of physical abuse, had agreed to preserve the collection.

On Tuesday, November 19, Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg opened a museum to display his remarkable collection of Faberge eggs, once owned by the Tsars, in Saint Petersburg. Vekselberg purchased the collection from the estate of the late Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of Forbes magazine, in 2004.

Vekselberg’s collection of Faberge objects is rates as one of the world’s most valuable and was previously valued at $90 million. The museum, which was entirely privately funded, will open to the public in December 2013.

An extremely rare Fabergé statuette recently discovered in an attic in Rhinebeck, NY sold for a record price of $5,980,000 on Saturday, October 26^th at Stair Galleries in Hudson. The work, which was estimated to garner $500,000 to $800,000, sold to a phone bidder. The last hardstone figure to appear at auction sold for $1.8 million in 2005 at Sotheby’s, New York.

 The work, which was believed to have been lost, is one of 50 sculptures in semiprecious stones and gold produced by the Fabergé workshop. The statuette was acquired by a collector from the dealer and industrialist Armand Hammer in the 1930s and re-emerged this summer complete with original receipts when a descendant’s estate was emptied. The work depicts Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, bodyguard to Empress Alexandra, the wife of Nikolai II, Russia’s last Tsar.

 Wartski, the famed London-based jewelers, who serves the Queen of England, purchased the piece. They specialize in Russian pieces, most notably Fabergé. It’s not clear if they were purchasing it for stock or a private client.

An extremely rare Fabergé statuette depicting a royal Russian bodyguard was recently discovered in an attic in Rhinebeck, NY. The work, which was believed to have been lost, is one of 50 sculptures in semiprecious stones and gold produced by the Fabergé workshop.

 The statuette was acquired by a collector from the dealer and industrialist Armand Hammer in the 1930s and re-emerged this summer complete with original receipts when a descendant’s estate was emptied. The work depicts Nikolai N. Pustynnikov, bodyguard to Empress Alexandra, the wife of Nikolai II, Russia’s last Tsar.

 Stair Galleries in Hudson, NY will auction the work on October 26; it is expected to sell for $500,000 to $800,000.