New Delhi: The world renowned Faberge eggs, made for Czar Alexander the III by Carl Faberge, are on display in India for the first time ever. The collection is valued at $22 million. It’s meant to bring back memories of a past era and include symbols of the long-gone Czarist Empire.
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“The creative work of Carl Faberge echoed the events of his time and was intimately associated with the turbulent Russian history, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries”, says Dr Karan Singh, President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
”We see the historical value of this collection because it represents what happened in history”, says Roman Thaker of ‘The Link of Times Foundation’, which brought the 9 Faberge eggs on display to India. ”It’s important to Russians to know what happened to an era that’s gone.”
Many of the eggs were presented to Czars Alexander III and his son Nicholas II of Russia who gave them as gifts to immediate families every Easter. Once an initial design was approved, an entire team of designers, painters, and artists created the eggs under the direction of Peter Carl Faberge. 50 eggs were created for the Imperial family, out of which 8 have been lost. ”A number of museums, archives and private collections have been assiduously collecting the works of Faberge over the last century,” says Dr Singh.
The exhibition will remain open until 18 January, 2009 at the National Museum in New Delhi.