Va Museum Of Fine Arts Shows The Faberge Treasures

Richmond, Va. (AP) - richly jeweled Easter eggs designed by Carl Fabergé for the Russian royal family are among hundreds of Fabergé objects exposed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

"Faberge Revealed" includes the Imperial Easter eggs and pieces of its collection of sculptures and other works VMFA on loan from three private collections, the exhibition is the largest public collection of Faberge in the United States, said Geza von Habsburg, an expert Faberge, and the exhibition is guest curator.

The standout piece is the Imperial Lilies of the Valley Basket sculpture, which represents all aspects of Faberge work of art together, Habsburg said.

"You can see art of jewelry in outbreaks of pearls and diamonds little Rosebud, the art of stonework in jade leaves, which seem to be alive, and silverware in the basket of gold," he said. "And the foam is pretty amazing."

Which was presented to Alexandra Feodorovna Tsarina in 1896, the year of the coronation of her husband, Nicholas II, last emperor of Russia. The work was his favorite, which appears on his desk until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The couple and their children were executed the following year.

The exhibition, which ends October 2, Nicolas has six eggs introduced his wife and mother as a gift of Easter, like Peter the Great in 1903 Imperial Easter Egg, gold and lapis 1912 Imperial Easter Egg and the Tsarevich gold and green enamel-1912 Imperial Napoleonic Egg.

The commissioned to commemorate the bicentenary of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great Egg is made of gold, platinum, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and enamel miniature watercolor on ivory. The interior is a miniature replica of the Bronze Horseman statue of Emperor Falconet 17 century that arises when the egg is opened.

An imperial eggs may seek $ 25 million $ 30 million at auction, estimates of the Habsburgs. Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg bought nine imperial eggs from the Forbes collection in 2004, imperial coronation Egg purchase price, for example, was estimated between $ 18 million and 24 million, he said.

Faberge company has become the supplier of the imperial court, after selling a piece of jewelry in gold, the wife of Tsar Alexander III, Empress Maria Feodorovna, in 1882. He then began a series of Imperial Easter eggs, which later made him famous, and forever linked to its opulence in Russian dynasty in recent days.

His four sons and his brother, 40 people worked for design firm Faberge of St. Petersburg and 500 craftsmen and other employees to create 150 000 unique items, distinguished leaders in the House of Faberge, goldsmith season.

"Each piece was one of a kind, that is, there were no trials," said Habsburg. "This gives us more than any architect or goldsmith of his time."

Alexander gave his wife of 30 eggs, and Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia final, gave the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna 20.

The Bolsheviks have destroyed most of Faberge pieces revolution, molten metal, and sells jewelry and stones. A few hundred objects are in Russia, Habsburg said.

The royal family of Imperial eggs were seized, and eight died during the Revolution. Ten of the Kremlin Armory Museum in Moscow. The Bolsheviks ordered the others were sold in 1925 and 1933 through the state agency responsible for the sale of art, 42 eggs survive, and they are both public and private collections.

Because it was a symbol of artistic decadence race crash, Faberge and his three children fled the country in 1918. The fourth child, remained in Russia, was imprisoned. After the death of Faberge in 1920, the boys tried to relaunch the brand in Paris, Mr Habsburg said.

"But if you think that was 20 years, he was the Art Deco period, Charleston and jazz, so much beautiful Fabergé in the French style of the 18th century, was no longer in demand," he said .

Convicted Russian Imperial fascinated many Americans, such as Virginia, Lillian Thomas Pratt, whose collection was bequeathed VMFA after his death in 1947. Pratt, wife of General Motors executive, scrimped to buy the slumping economy during 1933-45 produced the New York art dealer Alexander Shaffer. He bought the egg Imperial Peter the Great in 1939, and undermining the bill was $ 16,500 in monthly 1942-44, the Museum of records.

She also acquired some of her businessman and art collector Armand Hammer, but some have already been determined as the imitations, the Habsburgs, he said. The exhibition is also part of what he calls "Fauxberge" items, including figures of animals in hard stone and floral parts.

Posted in: Art