Fabergé egg swallowed by thief recovered in New Zealand

The authorities assigned an agent to continuously monitor the thief, waiting for the precious object, so to speak, to return to light. Only after six days, the Fabergé was able to return to its rightful owner and the suspect is now expected at trial.

The pendant, worth approximately 33,500 dollars, is a special edition created in homage to the famous Fabergé protagonist of “Octopussy”, the 1983 film of the James Bond saga starring the actor Roger Moore in the role of secret agent 007. The guilloche green enamel shell opens to reveal an 18-carat yellow gold octopus, adorned with 60 white diamonds, 15 blue sapphires and two diamond eyes. black diamond. A direct tribute to the antagonist of the iconic film.

Fabergé remains one of the most legendary names in fine jewelry. His famous eggs, created between 1885 and 1917 for the Russian imperial Romanov family, are today among the most sought-after objects in the world: there are around 50 of them, of which seven are still missing and the same number are preserved in private hands.

The charm of the original examples continues to fuel a record-breaking market. On December 2, a rare crystal and diamond Fabergé egg sold at Christie’s in London for £22.9 million (about $30.2 million), breaking all previous records. The auction, titled “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection,” totaled £27.8 million ($37.1 million).

The previous record was set in 2007, when another Fabergé egg was purchased in London by the Rothschild family for £8.9 million ($11.9 million). The bizarre episode in Auckland adds a new chapter to the already incredible events linked to Fabergé objects. This time, however, it is not a collector’s mystery or a House of Romanov intrigue, but a clumsy theft attempt that not even James Bond could have foreseen. (Of Paolo Martini)