Something Old Becomes New Again

A previously unrecorded Faberge egg valued at up to $18 million is going up for sale next month, Christie's auction house said Thursday.



The Associated Press reports:

The pink enamel-and-gold egg is one of only a dozen designed to the highest standards for clients other than Russia's ruling family. It has been in the Rothschild banking family since 1902, when it was given as an engagement present.

The egg contains a diamond-set cockerel which pops up every hour and flaps its wings, nods its head and opens and closes its beak.

It will go on sale Nov. 28 at Christie's in London, where it is expected to fetch $12 million to $18 million. If it reaches the top price, it will break the existing record for a Russian artwork, the US$9.6 million paid for a Faberge egg in New York in April 2002.

"The discovery of this masterpiece is the most exciting of my 40-year career," said Anthony Philips, International Director of Silver and Russian Works of Art at Christie's. "Although few examples exist, The Faberge egg is known around the world as one of the most impressive and exclusive works of art ever made."

Craftsmen Peter Carl Faberge created more than 50 of the eggs for Russia's imperial family, though not all survive. Czar Alexander III commissioned the first as an anniversary present for his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna, on Easter Day 1885. The Empress was so enamored of the enameled egg, with a golden yoke, golden hen, miniature diamond crown and ruby egg inside, that the czar ordered that a unique egg be made for her every Easter Day after.

After the Czar died unexpectedly in 1894, his son Nicholas continued the tradition until the Russian Revolution in 1917. Nicholas and his family were executed on July 17, 1918.

After the revolution, the communist government sold off many of Faberge's creations, which found their way into Western collections.

The Rothschild egg was presented as an engagement gift to Edouard de Rothschild and Germaine Halphen, who married in 1905, by Edouard's sister Beatrice Ephrussi.

Woman Sets Fire To Ex-Husband's Penis

Reuters reports:

A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said on Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict".

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

According to UPI:

The woman said she was fed up with the man watching pornography and having affairs.

He had a fractured foot from a car accident and asked the woman to bring home a bottle of vodka, which he drank in front of the television. When he fell asleep, the woman told police she tried torching his whole body but the alcohol evaporated too quickly.

She then made a torch out of a newspaper, splashed his groin with alcohol and lit it, Korolyova said.

The man sustained first-degree burns to his lower abdomen and was hospitalized for several days. The woman could face assault charges, the report said.

"His sex organs took the heaviest blow," an unidentified nurse told the newspaper.

As the U.S. economy continues to decline, I expect we'll be reading more stories like this one, closer to home.