Faberge egg auctioned for nearly $18M

LONDON, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A 105-year-old, bejeweled Faberge egg has been purchased at auction in Britain for a record $17.8 million by a private Russian art collector.

The unidentified collector was in the Christie's auction room in London for the sale of the Rothschild Egg, which broke the previous Faberge record of $13.2 million paid for the Winter Egg in 2002, the BBC reported Thursday.

The Rothschild egg, made in 1902 for the Rothschild banking family, had never been seen in public before and previously was only documented in private family records, the British network said.

The rare egg, one of only a dozen in public hands, is gold and pink with a clock for a face. It has a diamond-encrusted cockerel that nods its head flaps its wings on the stroke of each hour, the BBC said.

The egg, made by Peter Carl Faberge, was an engagement gift from Germaine Halphen to Baron de Rothschild.

The sale also represented the most ever paid for a timepiece or for a Russian art object, the network said.