A $14,000 jumble sale find turned into millions of dollars for a man who’d been thwarted in his attempts to turn a quick profit by selling the tiny ornament to scrap metal dealers.
The man, who hails from the Midwest but wishes to remain anonymous, had been left financially stretched after he apparently overestimated what the tiny golden egg would be worth once melted down. He’d been hoping to make $500.
In a fit of desperation one night last year, he typed “egg” and the name engraved on the clock it contained — “Vacheron Constantin” — into Google.
His search brought up a 2011 article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper describing a “frantic search” for the object: the Third Imperial Easter Egg, made by Faberge for the Russian royal family and estimated to be worth $20 million.
Far from being a financial millstone around the scrap metal trader’s neck, it appeared the golden egg might live up to its fairy-tale namesake and avoid the furnace with just a few scratches — to assess its gold content — to show for it.
The man contacted Faberge expert Kieran McCarthy and flew to London to visit McCarthy’s workplace: Wartski jewelers in Mayfair, where the egg will be displayed to the public for only the second time, from April 14 to 17.