THERE is good luck, outrageous good fortune — and now there is the case of the scrap metal dealer who found one of the eight missing Fabergé imperial eggs at a flea market in the American Midwest.

A London antique dealer said that the scrap metal entrepreneur bought the egg for about $14,000, thinking he could make a small profit by reselling the piece for its gold content.

It turned out the jewel-encrusted piece was worth millions.(see picture below).

Kieran McCarthy of Wartski, which specialises in Russian artefacts, said the scrap metal dealer began to suspect he was holding a rare piece after seeing an article online about an imperial Fabergé Easter egg made for Russian royalty. The dealer contacted Mr McCarthy, who verified the egg as genuine and negotiated its sale to a collector.

“The second I saw it, my spine was shivering,” said Mr McCarthy, calling the piece a “Holy Grail” for collectors.

Both buyer and seller want to remain anonymous, and Mr McCarthy did not disclose the sale price — but experts note that a non-imperial Fabergé egg sold at Christie's for $US18.5 million in 2007.

Independent Faberge expert Geza von Habsburg said the egg is “absolutely genuine” and matches the one-line description found in records kept by Russia's Imperial Cabinet.

The egg, which contains a Vacheron Constantin watch, sits on a jewelled gold stand and was given by Alexander III to his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna in Easter 1887.

Only 50 of the imperial eggs were made for the royal family, and eight remained missing before the latest find, though only three of those are known to have survived the Russian Revolution.

“I think it's pretty exciting,” said Tatiana Zherebkina, spokeswoman for Fabergé. “The experts seem to agree it's authentic and of imperial provenance — one of the eight missing eggs.”

It will be on display at Wartski's London showroom in April, the first time it will have been seen in public for 112 years.

With many thanks to The Australian (pay wall)

Top picture credit: Grande Dame
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This tradition was begun in 1885 by Tsar Alexander III, who commissioned Peter Carl Fabergé's workshop to create a special Easter egg for his wife, Maria Fedorovna. As a special gift produced for the most important holiday on the Russian Orthodox calendar, this egg contained nested surprises.

The so-called "Hen Egg" opened to reveal a ruby contained in a small replica of a crown, which was then nestled in a gold chicken resting in a golden yolk. Maria Fedorovna was delighted by this gift.

After Alexander's death in 1894, his son Nicholas II assumed the throne and continued the Fabergé egg tradition, this time ordering two eggs-one for his mother, Maria Fedorovna, and one for his German wife, Alexandra Feodorovna.

Above: a small excerpt from the TV series "Raiders of the Lost Art" which is largely about this recently found egg, and mentions the others. Some are still out there!

Fabergé's workshop would continue to produce Fabergé eggs until 1917 (as well as other inspired Fabergé objects). Each Fabergé egg depicted a different event or theme in Russia's history.

More about Fabergé eggs from the MET: