Sold in 2002, the Winter Egg held the previous record for a Faberg?? egg sold at auction.

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest

Each Faberg?? egg took up to a year to create and required the skills of several hundred craftsmen.

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest

The race was on for lot No. 55, a translucent, pink Faberg?? egg.

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest

Russian Czar Alexander III commissioned craftsman Peter Carl Faberg?? in 1885 to craft an egg as an Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna.

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest

Energy billionaire Victor Vekselberg bought the largest-ever private collection of Faberg?? imperial Easter Eggs from the Forbes family, the publishers of this Web site, in 2004.

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest

Choice slices, cut thin enough to let light pass through, and polished to show the crisscrossed patterning of unalloyed nickel and iron, are as sublimely gaudy as Faberg??, and can be nearly as pricey.

FORBES: Hot Rocks

What makes Faberg?? eggs so special?

FORBES: Faberge Egg Goes Back To Its Nest