LONDON — A previously unrecorded Faberge egg valued at up to $18 million is going up for sale next month, Christie’s auction house said Thursday.
The pink-enamel-and-gold egg is one of only a dozen designed to the highest standards for clients other than Russia’s ruling family. It has been in the Rothschild banking family since 1902, when it was given as an engagement present.
The egg contains a diamond-set cockerel that pops up every hour and flaps its wings, nods its head and opens and closes its beak.
It will go on sale Nov. 28 at Christie’s in London, where it is expected to fetch from $12 million to $18 million. If it reaches the top price, it will break the existing record for a Russian artwork, the $9.6 million paid for a Faberge egg in New York in April 2002.
“The discovery of this masterpiece is the most exciting of my 40-year career,” said Anthony Philips, international director of silver and Russian works of art at Christie’s. “Although few examples exist, the Faberge egg is known around the world as one of the most impressive and exclusive works of art ever made.”
Craftsman Peter Carl Faberge created more than 50 of the eggs for Russia’s imperial family, though not all survive.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the communist government sold off many of Faberge’s creations, which found their way into Western collections.
The Rothschild egg was presented as an engagement gift by Edouard’s sister Beatrice Ephrussi to Edouard de Rothschild and Germaine Halphen, who married in 1905.
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