Christie’s sets new Fabergé auction record with £22.9m Winter Egg sale

Christie’s has set a new auction record for a work by Fabergé after the Winter Egg sold for £22.9m at the start of Classic Week in London. 

The piece, one of the few Imperial Easter eggs remaining in private hands, led a combined £40.5m achieved across the Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection sale and the Old Masters Evening Sale.

The Fabergé auction generated £27.8m, selling 92% by lot and 98% by value. Alongside the Winter Egg, notable results included a 1916 hardstone model of a street painter by Fabergé, which sold for £1.5m.

Additionally, the Fabergé Album Designs, produced in the workshop of Henrik Wigström between 1911 and 1916, achieved £508,000.

Margo Oganesian, Christie’s head of Fabergé and Russian works of art, said:  “Christie’s is honoured to have been entrusted with the sale of the exquisite Winter Egg by Fabergé for the third time in our history. Today’s result sets a new world auction record for a work by Fabergé, reaffirming the enduring significance of this masterpiece and celebrating the rarity and brilliance of what is widely regarded as one of Fabergé’s finest creations, both technically and artistically. 

“With only a handful of Imperial Easter Eggs remaining in private hands, this was an exceptional and historic opportunity for collectors to acquire a work of unparalleled importance. Christie’s reaffirmed its market leadership for Fabergé with the sale of this erudite collection, attracting fierce competition from bidders around the world, and engaging both collectors and the wider public globally with the legacy of Fabergé.”