It was sitting on a kitchen counter in the American Midwest. Seriously. A piece of art worth roughly $33 million was just hanging out next to a toaster. The guy who bought it at an antiques drive-through didn’t even know what he had. He’d paid $13,302 for it, which is a lot of money for a "trinket," but he was basically gambling on the scrap gold value. He thought he could melt it down and make a quick profit.
Instead, he found the Third Imperial Easter Egg.
This isn't some urban legend or a plot from a heist movie. It’s arguably the most insane discovery in the history of the art world. Peter Carl Fabergé created 52 Imperial eggs for the Russian Tsars, and for decades, the Third Imperial Egg was one of the "lost" ones. It vanished after the Russian Revolution, and most historians figured it had been destroyed by the Bolsheviks or lost to the chaos of the 20th century.
The Scrapper Who Hit the Jackpot
The story of the Third Imperial Easter Egg re-entering the world starts with a man who prefers to remain anonymous. Let's call him the Midwest Dealer. In 2012, this guy was struggling. He’d bought this gold egg at an antiques market thinking the gold content alone was worth the investment. But when he tried to flip it, buyers told him he’d overpaid.
He was stuck with a gold egg that had a Vacheron Constantin watch tucked inside.
Frustrated and probably a bit desperate, he did what anyone does in the 21st century: he Googled it. He typed in "egg" and "Vacheron Constantin," which were names engraved on the watch inside. That search led him to an article from The Telegraph. He saw a picture that looked exactly like the thing sitting on his counter.
Imagine that moment. You're looking at your screen, then looking at the "junk" on your table, and realizing you're holding a missing piece of the Romanov dynasty.
He flew to London. He didn't even pack a bag; he just got on a plane and went straight to the offices of Wartski, the legendary antique dealers who specialize in Fabergé. Kieran McCarthy, the director at Wartski, later described the man as being in a state of total shock. When McCarthy saw the photos, he knew immediately. The Third Imperial Easter Egg had been found.
Why This Specific Egg Is a Big Deal
Fabergé wasn't just making pretty jewelry. These were engineering marvels. The Third Imperial Easter Egg was a gift from Tsar Alexander III to his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, for Easter in 1887.
It’s small. Only about 8.2 centimeters high.
It sits on an elaborate tripod pedestal with lion paws. It’s crafted from yellow gold and decorated with sapphires and diamonds. But the "wow" factor is the mechanism. When you press a diamond push-piece on the front, the lid pops open to reveal the watch.
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The craftsmanship is honestly terrifyingly precise. Remember, this was 1887. No CAD software. No modern lasers. Just hand-tools and genius. This egg was the third in the series, following the First Hen Egg and the Resurrection Egg. Because it was so early in the tradition, it represents the moment when Fabergé started getting really experimental with the "surprise" inside.
The Long Walk from St. Petersburg to the Midwest
How did it get to a flea market? That’s the gap everyone wants to fill.
We know the Bolsheviks seized the Romanov treasures during the Revolution. They weren't sentimental. They saw these eggs as symbols of the "decadent" monarchy and needed hard cash to fund their new government. In the 1920s, a lot of the Imperial eggs were sold off to Western collectors or firms like Hammer Galleries in New York.
The Third Imperial Easter Egg was recorded in an inventory of confiscated goods, but then the trail goes cold.
It actually showed up at a Parke-Bernet auction in New York in 1964. The listing was incredibly vague. It didn't mention Fabergé at all. It was just called a "gold watch in egg form." It sold for $2,450. After that, it disappeared again, eventually winding up in that Midwestern antique stall where our scrapper friend found it.
Identifying a Ghost
When McCarthy travelled to the Midwest to verify the egg, he was standing in a modest home, looking at a piece of history that hadn't been seen by an expert eye in generations.
Identification isn't just about looking at it and saying "yep, that's gold."
- The Watch Movement: The Vacheron Constantin watch inside had a specific serial number that matched the records of the Imperial cabinet.
- The Hallmarks: Fabergé work-masters left "fingerprints" in the form of tiny stamps.
- Historical Photographs: Experts compared the physical object to grainy black-and-white photos taken during an exhibition of the Imperial Dowager Empress's treasures in 1902.
Every single detail lined up. The sapphires were the right cut. The gold was the right purity. The mechanism still worked. It was a miracle of survival. If that scrapper had been just a little more impatient, he might have tossed it into a furnace and turned $33 million into about $10,000 worth of molten gold.
The Market for Imperial Fabergé
Let's talk money, because it's impossible not to.
The Third Imperial Easter Egg was eventually sold to a private collector. While the exact price wasn't disclosed to the public, the valuation at the time of discovery was £20 million (around $33 million).
Why so much? Scarcity.
There were 52 eggs made for the Tsars. Around 46 are known to exist today. That leaves a handful of "lost" eggs out there somewhere. Whenever one appears, it’s a global event. The market for Fabergé is fueled by high-net-worth individuals in Russia, the Middle East, and the US who see these objects as the ultimate trophy. They are the "Bitcoins of the 19th century," but with actual physical beauty and historical weight.
Myths and Misconceptions About the Egg
A lot of people think all Fabergé eggs are "Imperial." They aren't.
Fabergé made plenty of eggs for other wealthy clients, like the Duchess of Marlborough or the Rothschild family. Those are valuable, sure, but they aren't Imperial valuable. The "Imperial" designation means it was specifically commissioned by the Tsar for his wife or mother.
Another big mistake? Thinking that because an egg is old and gold, it must be a Fabergé. The market is flooded with "Faux-bergé." In the years following the 2012 discovery, thousands of people started digging through their attics hoping to find the next Third Imperial Easter Egg. Most found cheap souvenirs from the 1970s.
True Fabergé work is defined by the "en plein" enamel technique and the incredible balance of the object. If the hinge feels a bit loose or the stones look glued in, it’s not the real deal. Fabergé was a perfectionist. If it wasn't perfect, it didn't leave the workshop.
Where Are the Other Missing Eggs?
The discovery of the Third Imperial egg gave hope to historians that the others might still be out there. There are still about six Imperial eggs missing.
The "Cherub with Chariot" egg (1888) is still out there somewhere. So is the "Nécessaire" egg (1889). The "Nécessaire" egg was actually sold by Wartski in the 1950s to a buyer who used the name "A. Stranger." No one knows who that was, and the egg hasn't been seen since.
It’s entirely possible that another one of these is sitting in a shoebox in a garage in London or a dusty cabinet in Paris. The Third Imperial Easter Egg proved that these things don't always stay in the hands of the elite. They migrate. They get sold at garage sales. They get forgotten.
How to Spot a "Lost" Masterpiece
If you're out hunting for antiques, don't just look for "Fabergé." Look for quality that seems out of place for the price tag.
- Look for the Weight: Imperial eggs are often weighted with lead or have heavy gold content. They feel substantial.
- Inspect the "Surprise": Every Imperial egg has a surprise. It might be a miniature carriage, a mechanical bird, or in the case of the Third Imperial egg, a high-end watch.
- The Mystery of the Markings: Check for the initials of the work-masters. For the Third egg, you’d look for signs of August Holmström, who was the head jeweler for Fabergé at the time.
Honestly, the odds of finding another one are astronomical. But then again, they were astronomical for the guy in the Midwest, too. He was just a man looking to make a few bucks on scrap metal, and he ended up saving a piece of world history.
The Third Imperial Easter Egg is now back in a private collection, likely tucked away in a high-security vault. It’s a bit sad that the public can’t see it easily, but that’s the nature of the high-end art world. The important thing is that it wasn't melted down. It survived the Bolsheviks, it survived the 1960s, and it survived a Midwestern kitchen counter.
To really understand the scale of this, you have to look at the historical context of the 1880s. Russia was a powder keg. The Tsars were living in a bubble of unimaginable wealth while the rest of the country was on the brink of collapse. These eggs were the peak of that bubble. They represent a level of luxury that literally caused a revolution. When you hold an object like that, you aren't just holding gold; you're holding the catalyst for the 20th century.
If you think you've found something special, don't clean it. Don't try to "fix" it. Take high-resolution photos of any markings and reach out to an auction house like Christie's or Sotheby's, or a specialist firm like Wartski. Most of the time, it'll be a replica. But every once in a while, the world gets a reminder that lost treasures are actually real.
Invest in a good magnifying glass and start checking those local estate sales. You never know when you're looking at thirty million dollars disguised as a dusty clock.
Next Steps for Potential Collectors and History Buffs
- Visit the Fabergé Museum: If you want to see what real Imperial quality looks like, the Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, houses the largest collection, including the First Hen Egg.
- Study the "Missing" List: Familiarize yourself with the descriptions of the remaining missing eggs, specifically the 1886 "Hen with Sapphire Pendant" and the 1889 "Nécessaire."
- Check Provenance Records: Use the Fabergé Research Site to cross-reference any markings or designs you encounter in the wild.
- Avoid "Faux-bergé": Be skeptical of any "Imperial" egg found online for under five figures; legitimate pieces are documented with nearly forensic levels of detail.