Fabergé Collection to Tour Russia
By Monica McLaughlin -- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 5/1/2004
The Associated Press has reported that the Fabergé collection formerly owned by Forbes magazine will begin a tour of Russia in May. Debuting at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 18, 2004, the collection is expected to travel to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and on to an unannounced location in Yekaterinburg, the city where the Russian imperial family was executed in 1918.
The collection, recently purchased from Sotheby's New York for an undisclosed sum by Moscow tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, now is owned by the Svyaz Vremyon Foundation. Vekselberg created the foundation with the express purpose of bringing lost treasures home to Russia—a cause Russian president Vladimir Putin is actively encouraging. Sophia Kishkovsky of the New York Times reported that, in January, the Russian government lifted the 30% taxes and duties formerly levied on private collectors who wish to bring works of art into the country. Dates for the Fabergé tour have not yet been determined.
