Fabergé Imperial Winter Egg Expected to Break Auction Record With $26 Million Estimate

LONDON, December 2, 2025 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) – A Fabergé Imperial Winter Egg, commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as an Easter gift to his mother, will go to auction next week and could set a record for the third time with a price estimate exceeding $26 million, according to Christie’s.

Carved from rock crystal and decorated with platinum snowflake motifs set with rose-cut diamonds, the Winter Egg is regarded as one of Fabergé’s finest Imperial creations. Sitting on a crystal base resembling melting ice, the egg is engraved with a frost design and was originally designed to open to reveal a bouquet of flowers.

The piece will be auctioned on December 2 during Christie’s “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection” sale, part of its “Classic Week.” Christie’s lists the egg with a “price estimate on request; in excess of 20 million pounds” ($26.45 million).

“This is one of the Imperial Easter Eggs created by Fabergé for the Romanovs. And the Winter Egg is arguably the best of them all,” said Margo Oganesian, Christie’s head of department, Fabergé and Russian works of art.

“It was commissioned in 1913 as a present from Nicholas II to his mother, Maria Feodorovna. And it’s amazing in its design, in its craftsmanship, the technique that Fabergé used, the history behind it.”

Christie’s previously sold the Winter Egg in Geneva in 1994 and in New York in 2002, setting world auction records both times. The 2002 sale achieved $9.6 million.

The Rothschild Fabergé Egg later sold for $18.5 million at a Christie’s auction in 2007.

The sale is part of Christie’s “Classic Week,” running from December 2 to 11. Among the highlights of the Old Masters Evening Sale on December 2 is Dutch painter Gerrit Dou’s “The Flute Player,” estimated at 2–3 million pounds.