Faberge Eggs’ Visit: A Baker’s Dozen Plus One

Six months after San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor announced she had received commitments for an exhibit of Imperial Faberge eggs for her Soviet Arts Festival, she came up with a number.

Fourteen of the jewel-encrusted eggs will be on display at the San Diego Museum of Art, beginning Oct. 21, the opening day of the festival, O’Connor said in a prepared statement Friday. The festival closes Nov. 11, but the eggs--seven of them from the Moscow Armory Museum and seven from the private collection of American publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes--will remain on display through Jan. 7.

It will be the largest exhibition ever of Faberge eggs in the United States, and, when the same clutch moves from San Diego to Moscow early next year, it will be the first time that many of the eggs have been together in Russia since the Revolution.

O’Connor called the display “a major artistic coup.”

The mayor met with officials representing Forbes and the Soviet Ministry of Culture for about two hours Friday at Forbes’ New York offices before an agreement was reached. One of the key issues putting off an agreement had been the Soviet Union’s desire to have Forbes’ eggs exhibited in their country and Forbes’ reluctance to send them.

On Friday, O’Connor, Irina Rodimtseva, director of the Moscow Armory Museum, and San Diego Museum of Art board President Joseph Hibben were given a 1 1/2-hour tour of the Forbes Gallery, which houses 12 of the priceless eggs.

Even though Forbes’ eggs came from Russia, a spokesman for O’Connor stressed that it will be the first time that a foreign art exhibit will be seen in the Kremlin.

The jeweled and gold- and silver-encrusted eggs were designed by French jeweler Peter Carl Faberge as gifts for the wives of Russian Czars Alexander III and Nicholas II. Faberge crafted his eggs between 1884 and 1917, the year that marked the end of czarist rule.

Each egg, which sits on an ornate stand, is decorated with a specific scene. The seven selected by Rodimtseva for the exhibit are “The Madonna Lily Egg” (1899), “The Trans-Siberian Railway Egg” (1901), “The Alexander Palace Egg,” (1908), “The Standart Egg” (1909), “The Alexander III Equestrian Egg” (1910), “The Romanov Tercentenary Egg” (1913) and “The Steel Military Egg” (1916).

Two of the three other eggs in the Armory collection, “The Azova Egg” (1891) and “The Clover Egg” (1902), are already committed to another show in Europe. A third, the “Uspensky Cathedral Egg” (1904), is considered too fragile to travel. Forbes officials have not yet selected the seven of their 12 eggs that will be in the exhibit.

In addition to the eggs, the 22-day cultural festival will feature theatrical, musical, visual and craft performances and exhibits from the Soviet Union. Among the major elements are an exhibit of Russian icons from Tbilisi and a performance of Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” by the San Diego Opera, featuring a Soviet conductor and principal singers.

A highlight of the festival will be the culture of the Soviet state of Georgia, including children folk dancers, a marionette troupe, craft exhibits by adult and child artisans, folk musicians, a chamber music ensemble and a cooking display by Georgian chefs.

The San Diego Symphony, the Old Globe Theatre and half a dozen local visual art institutions are working to bring cultural elements from their Soviet counterparts to the festival.

As originally budgeted, the Faberge eggs accounted for more than 10% of the overall $6.2-million festival cost. Festival administrative director Bruce Herring said Friday that he will have to refigure the expenses associated with exhibiting 14 eggs to determine the actual cost of the display.