Sotheby’s said Thursday that it would sell nine magnificent Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs from the world-renowned Forbes Collection, the largest private collection of the fabled Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs in the world and one of the largest collections in existence.

The collection, reportedly second in size only to the 10 in the Kremlin, will be offered at Sotheby’s in New York along with 180 other Fabergé objects from the Forbes holdings on April 20 and 21, 2004. Together, they are expected to sell for at least $90 million.

So exquisite and desirable are Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs that they are the standard metaphor for all treasures of the utmost rarity and value. They were first commissioned from the House of Fabergé by Tsar Alexander III in 1885 as Easter gifts for his wife, the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna. His son and successor, Tsar Nicholas II, later commissioned treasures for his own wife Alexandra and for his mother, the Dowager Empress, continuing an Imperial Easter tradition which endured for over thirty years.

JCK