Nov 28, 2007, 15:58 GMT
London - A Faberge egg made for the Rothschild banking family was sold to a Russian private client for 8.98 million pounds (18.5 million dollars) at Christie's auction house in London Wednesday, setting a new world record price for a Faberge piece.
It also beat previous records for any timepiece at auction, and marked a world record price for a Russian art object, excluding paintings, Christie's said.
The previous record was established in 2002 when The Faberge Winter Egg sold for 6.6 million pounds (9.5 million dollars) at Christie's in New York.
The Rothschild Faberge Egg, which had never been seen in public before, was sold to a private Russian client after 10 minutes of tense bidding in a busy salesroom, said the auction house.
It is just one of 12 Faberge pieces known have been made to imperial standards for anyone other than the former Russian Imperial Family.
Large and gold and pink in colour, the egg has a clock face and contains a mechanically-operated cockerel.
Every hour, the diamond cockerel pops up from inside the egg, flaps his wings four times and then nods his head three times in a performance that lasts 15 seconds.
It was a gift from Beatrice Ephrussi, born de Rothschild, to Germaine Halphen, on her engagement to Beatrice's younger brother, Baron Edouard de Rothschild, whom she married in 1905.
The egg has been in the family ever since and it is thought that Beatrice's husband Maurice Ephrussi, who worked for the Rothschild family's oil in interests and later became a banker.
It is thought that he bought the egg whilst in St Petersburg at the turn of the 20th century, or during one of Faberge's selling trips to Paris.
'The Rothschild Faberge Egg, signed and dated by Karl Faberge in 1902, encapsulates every characteristic that defines a true masterpiece: authorship, craftsmanship, provenance, condition and rarity,' said Anthony Philips of Christie's.
Faberge eggs, so named after their goldsmith creator, are made from precious metals or hard stones, and decorated with combinations of enamel and gemstones.
Worldwide, 60 of the eggs are still known to exist, of which 21 were in Russia in 2006, most of them on display in the Kremlin Armoury Museum.
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