Russian Works of Art

Jewellery dealer Bentley & Skinner is marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution with an exhibition of work by Peter Carl Fabergé.

The BBC’s Antiques Roadshow witnessed its third £1m valuation while filming at the Black Country Living Museum in the West Midlands last week.

A Fabergé film produced with the help of the former head of the Russian departments at Christie’s and Sotheby’s is being re-released in time for Easter.

Dealer Wartski has bought a boxed set of Fabergé cutlery at auction for the Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate.

The tragic story of the last of the imperial Russian family does not have an immediately obvious connection with a Yorkshire spa town but it is nonetheless a strong one.

New York auctioneers Doyle has announced that it is opening a Russian works of art department. It is run by Russian specialist Mark Moehrke, who has been appointed as the department’s vice president and director.

A career criminal who stole more than £700,000 worth of Fabergé items and sold them to a crack dealer for just £100 has been jailed for 28 months.

Two large 18th century gold medals depicting events from the reign of Catherine the Great sold for spectacular sums at Duke’s latest auction in Dorchester.

This Fabergé enamelled silver and hardstone cigarette box sold for £46,500 at the latest sale held at Nicholas Mellors of Newark.

Despite the unhelpful backdrop of Ukraine politics and the threat of economic sanctions, the Russian art market continued on its mercurial journey in the first week of June. The characteristic patchy selling rates for the ‘Londongrad’ sales were accompanied by moments of remarkable competition.

A previously lost Fabergé egg has been found by Mayfair jeweller Wartski in the American Midwest.

Even before the latest Russian art sales in London started this week, the enormous sums of money being spent in this sector became evident when Sotheby’s announced the private sale of their two star lots in advance of their auctions.

This Fabergé carved hardstone figure of an Imperial bodyguard, recently rediscovered in the attic of an estate in upstate New York, has sold for $5.2m (£3.38m) at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York. It has an extraordinary history.

Estimated at £10,000-15,000, this silver-gilt and ivory guilloché enamel desk clock by Carl Fabergé sold for £65,000 at George Kidner in Lymington, Hampshire.

The latest series of Russian art auctions in London set a combined hammer total of £42.7m to make it the most lucrative since the market peaked in June 2008.