Fabergé Museum

The Fabergé Museum is a privately-owned museum located in the German spa city of Baden-Baden, dedicated to items made by the Russian jewellery firm Fabergé. It was opened by Russian art collector Alexander Ivanov on.DescriptionThe museum's collection contains over 1,500 items made by Fabergé. Items in the collection include a rare silver decanter in the form of a rabbit and the last Imperial Easter Egg, the Karelian Birch egg, made of Karelian birch with gold and diamonds for Easter 1917. However, Czar Nicholas II was deposed before he could give it to his mother. When Ivanov first bought the Karelian egg, some experts resisted because its existence wasn’t known previously. Ivanov now has documents found in the Russian state archives proving that the egg is genuine.The Fabergé company was founded in St. Petersburg in 1842, and it was an official supplier to the Russian Imperial court from 1885 to 1917. It also supplied high-end luxury goods to the Russian and European aristocracy. Besides the czars, clients included the Queen of the United Kingdom and the royal family of Siam (now Thailand). Fabergé was closed after the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, and its exquisite items were almost forgotten and no longer cherished. The company’s artworks became popular again in the 1960s with Western collectors, led by Malcolm Forbes. Prices rose to records in the early part of the 21st century, thanks to Russians such as Ivanov who took a fancy to fine artworks that comprise their country’s heritage.Ivanov said his museum building cost about 17 million euros to buy and renovate, including a 1 million euro security system. He chose Baden-Baden, near Germany’s western border, because it is “quiet and nice, middle in Europe, close to France and Switzerland, a resort for the rich, and historically it has always been the most popular resort for Russians.”