World's Largest Diamond Exhibition Opens in London

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Vol. 24 No. 6 - JANUARY 2011

Russian billionaire feathers his Faberge nest egg

Swarovski Gems ^tm New Product Collection Innovations 2011

	Russian billionaire feathers his Faberge nest egg
x	Moscow’s most prolific art collector is channelling his expensive obsession into an extraordinary museum. By his standards, Alexander Ivanov had a quiet "Russian week" this year. He dropped a more $3 million last month, at the series of Russia—related art and antique sales held annually across London’s top auction houses. His most notable purchase was a 10-inch high clock made by the jeweller Faberge on which he spent around $610,000. But such sums are trifling in comparison to his 2007 trip to London for Russian Weeks, when he made off with 3 Faberge egg bought for $14 million — described at the time as "cheap". Mr Ivanov, perhaps the most prolific Russian art collector, keep a low profile, but in a rare interview in Moscow he spoke about his collection and his long standing passion for Faberge, the imperial Russian jewellers best known for their remarkable gem-encrusted eggs.		x
	Unlike most Russian art collectors, who have used vast fortunes built up elsewhere to fund their purchases, Mr Ivanov has made almost all of his cash by buying and selling antiques and artwork over the past two decades, amassing a collection in the processwhich he says is worth several billion pounds. The culmination of his Faberge obsession came earlier this year, when he opened a Faberge Museum in the German spa town of Baden Baden - the first ever Russian-funded museum to open in the West. The museum has about 700 exhibits from the famous jeweller - featuring everything from the famous eggs to clocks, cigarette cases and vases. The collection has taken some time to build up. Mr Ivanov, 49, served in the Soviet Navy for three years before going to university in Moscow, and he says he made his first money during the dying years of the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev’s restructuring of the Russian political and economic system, know as perestroika. Like many budding entrepreneurs, Mr Ivanov joined the Communist Youth League "co-operatives". and soon began spotting business opportunities. He started importing computers into russia - old Amstrad 1640s - and selling them to Soviet factories at a huge mark-up. As business picked up, he starts buying in bulk, and before long he had more money that he knew what to do with.
	"I was living in a student dormitory and we were bringing all this money in that we literally couldn’t. do anything with, he recalls, sitting in his Moscow office, over tea served from a vast antique teapot and slices of bread smeared with caviar. “I would have two or three large holdalls stuffed with dollars under the table at any one time. Property cost nothing back then, and there was nothing to buy in the shops, so I started to buy antiques."	Top : The $14 million egg, bought in 2007, that is the centrepiece of Ivanov's collection. Bottom : Mr. Alexander Ivanov funds his collecting by selling artworks to Russia's rich and famous.
	He soon developed a passion for Faberge, the jewellery workshop set up in St Peterburg in 1842. Faberge was the official suppler to the Russian Imperial court from 1885 until the revolution in 1917 , and in recent years prices for Faberge items have rocketed as Russians began to snap them up in a patriotic nod to their country's heritage. Much of Mr Ivanov's purchasing was done before the prices went sky high, but it continued after - he claims that their value can "only continue to go up and up". Whenever a Faberge item came up at auction, Mr Ivanov was sure to be there bidding for it, whether it was a small lapel badge made for Tsarist officials, sold for a few hundred pounds, or an egg in the millions.
	The centrepiece 0f his collection is the $14 million egg, made in 1902, as an engagement gift to Baron nuard de Rothschild, a member of the French banking dynasty. It is made from gold and pink enamel, and has cockerel that pops out of the top and flaps its wings every half an hour. There is also a silver table clock, bought for Tsar Alexander III's silver wedding Anniversary by members of his family. Made with over 25 silver angels, One for each year of marriage. Elsewhere in the museum there are miniature bonsai trees with leaves crafted gold and encrusted with hundreds of tiny diamonds, an ivory cigar cutter, a kangaroo wine decanter made from the collection of Jackie Onassis. He funds his collecting by selling artworks to Russia’s rich and famous, usually at a huge profit. He has become an art dealer to the oligatchs, and claims that he always uses his own money to make purchases at auctions. "There's always a queqe of people who want to buy things from me, " he says. "If I've bought it, people know it's worth something. At auctions a lot of people can’t see what I'm making bids for and then they start competing with me. " He says he has established special eye signals at most of the London auction houses so that other people can't see when he's bidding. He has something of a rivalry going with Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oil billionaire who has also taken an interest in Faberge and managed to pick up nine of the prized eggs, compared to Mr Vekselberg bought the eggs in 2004 from the collection of US publisher Malcolm Forbes, saying that he wanted to bring them back to Russia, but they have only been shown at temporary exhibitions. Although he has nine eggs, he has only about 300 Faberge items in total, says Mr Ivanov, somewhat defensively. "It’s a good collection. But it's not a museum."

	While the Kremlin and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg have major collections of Faberge items, it does seem strange that a Russian collector w0uld open up a museum abroad rather than at home, but Mr Ivanov says he has done so mainly to ensure peace of mind. "It's very difficult here because of all the administrative barriers, " he says. "You have to be indebted to someone, and you can never feel that your collection is safe - not from the state, not from bandtis, not from anyone. In germany we spend serious money on security of course, but at least you know that the state itself won't do anything."
	Baden Baden is a town with a long Russian assciation. It was a favoured haunt of the Tsarist aristocracy, who came in their droves to bathe in the medicinal waters, and it was also frequented by writers including Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Gogol and Fyodor Dostoyesky. "Every Russian feels an assciation with Baden Baden, especially the literary hereitage, "says Sergei Avtonoshkin, the director of the museum. The casio where Dostoyevsky ruiend himself gambling is still open today, and the house he lived in is now home to an estate agent's office. The windows are full of signs in Russian for elite properties in the region, proof that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the town has re-emerged as a favourite haunt of the Russian rich. Every restaurant and cafe has a Russian menu, and there are hundreds of Thousands Russian tourists who visit every year. Recently, says Mr Ivanov, a wealthy Arab sheikh was so impressed after visiting the museum that he offered $3 billion to buy the whole collection. He claims to have no plans to sell, however. Quite the opposite - he has recently bought an adjacent building and is now seeking planning permission for a second museum, to house a collection of antique cars recently bought wholesale from two American museums that ran into financial difficulties earlier this year. "What is $3 billion? It's a lot of money, of course, but it's not the same as having a collection like I have, " he says. "We're not selling." The Faberge story It all started with an egg. In 1885, the Russian Tsar Alexander III commissioned the jeweller Peter Carl Faberge to create an Easter gift for his wife. Known as the "Hen Egg", it contained a gold yolk, a miniature of the Imperial crown in diamonds, and a ruby pendent - tiny yet lavish surprises which characterised the 50 eggs that followed until the Russian Revolution in 1917. By then the eggs had become a symbol of decadence that mirrored Bolshevik feeling towards the royal family who were killed the following year. Having produced more than 155,000 pieces, the House of Faberge was nationalised and production ceased. The Faberges fled to Switzerland where Peter Carl died in 1920. In 2009, the company was revived by an American hedge fund company, producing 100 pieces which sold for between $38,000 and $6.6 million.

Swarovski Gems ^tm New Product Collection Innovations 2011

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Never-ending beads
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Opus beads
Round Brilliant Cut Genuine White Sapphire / Genuine Yellow Sapphire / Yellow Gold

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Round Brilliant Cut Genuine White Sapphire / White Gold

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Tron ring
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Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / Silver

Melange necklace
Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / Round Star Cut Passion Topaz Blazing Red / Round Brilliant Cut Genuine Yellow Sapphire / 18K White Gold / leather Cord

Elephant ring
Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / White Ceramic / White Gold

Boa earrings
Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / Yellow Gold

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Reversed Cut Zirconia White & Champagne / White Gold / Yellow Gold

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Meringue ring
Reversed Cut Zirconia White & Yellow Gold / White Ceramic

Naturals gemstones
White Sapphire
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Swan pendant
Reversed Cut Zirconia White & Champagne / Pear Diamond Cut ZIrconia White / White Gold

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Swan castle rings
Reversed Cut Zirconia Champagne / silver

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Burgeon Pendant / Brooch
Waterdrop Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / Oval Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / White Gold

Popple necklace Lemon Cut Zirconia Mint / White Gold
		Wreath rings Lemon Cut Zirconia Salmon Pink / Trilight Cut passion Topaz Paraiba / Lemon Cut Zirconia Mint / Trilight Cut Passion Topaz Ice Blue / Yellow Gold / White Gold

Mini drop earrings
Waterdrop Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / Round Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / Triangle Cut Zirconia Arctic Blue / White Gold

Peacock earrings
Waterdrop Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium Round Star Cut Passion Topaz Rainforest / White Gold

Gemotion
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Scallop bracelet
Gemotion set with Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / 18K Yellow Gold

Goldfish Pendant
Waterdrop Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White & Plexi Blue / White Gold

Ring
Gemotion set with Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia White / Yellow Gold / White Painted Metal

Me 2 pendant
Waterdrop Cut Synthetic Spinel Blue Medium / Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia Red / 18K White Gold / 18K Yellow Gold / Leather Cord

Ring
Gemotion set with Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia / White & Champagne / Yellow Gold

Ring
Gemotion set with Pure Brilliance Cut Zirconia Amethyst & Amber White Gold

Tango pendant
Gemotion set with Round Star Cut Passion Topaz Turquoise Blue & Blazing Red / White Gold / Yellow Gold