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Case file s831 · Russia and Byzantium · 1990
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1990
Malcolm Forbes: Malcolmforbessr
Malcolm Forbes. Acpritt. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
1990 (Malcolm Forbes)
Place
New York, USA; Saint Petersburg, Russia
Field
imperial Fabergé Easter eggs · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
private sale of a US estate's collection through Sotheby's; US sanctions law · Common law
Historical event
Soviet sale of imperial treasures and post-Soviet repatriation of Russian art
Member of
Republican Party (Wikidata)
Russia and ByzantiumSeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaEuropeRussia

Malcolm Forbes spent 25 years buying the tsars' Fabergé eggs, his family sold all nine to a Russian billionaire before the auction, and the US sanctioned the buyer in 2018

Alexander III ordered the first imperial Easter egg from Fabergé in 1885 as a gift for his wife. After the October 1917 coup the firm was nationalised and broken up. The American publisher Malcolm Forbes spent 25 years collecting Fabergé until his death in 1990. He bought an egg at Sotheby's in 1985 and the Rosebud Egg privately in 1986, in open competition with the Kremlin's collection. After his death his family said it was time for other collectors to enjoy the treasures. Sotheby's planned to auction the collection in New York in separate lots in April 2004. In February 2004 the Link of Times Foundation bought the whole collection before the sale: more than 200 objects, including nine eggs made for Alexander III and Nicholas II. The price was not disclosed. The Art Newspaper cited estimates of about $120 million. The buyer behind the foundation was the oil and mining billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. The eggs went on show at the Kremlin Museums in June 2004 and toured Russia for nine months. On 19 November 2013 the Fabergé Museum opened in the restored Shuvalov Palace in Saint Petersburg with the nine eggs at its core. On 6 April 2018 the US Treasury designated Vekselberg under its Russia sanctions for operating in the energy sector. A designation is an administrative sanction, not a criminal charge. The eggs are in the Shuvalov Palace.

What the law took from it

An estate that sells a collection whole, before auction, trades a higher possible price for certainty and a single buyer.

Sources
  1. home.treasury.govGovernment record
  2. fabergemuseum.ruScholarship
  3. The Art NewspaperPress
  4. voanews.comPress
  5. ganoksin.comPress
  6. rferl.orgPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Malcolm Forbes spent 25 years buying the tsars' Fabergé eggs, his family sold all nine to a Russian billionaire before the auction, and the US sanctioned the buyer in 2018,” story s831, https://www.celebrity.estate/malcolm-forbes-1990, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Russia and ByzantiumSeized by the statePostwarNorth AmericaEuropeCommon lawRussia