In photos: Russia Pavilion displays private collection of Fabergé pieces

Pieces from one of the world's most famous private collections of Fabergé masterpieces made a fleeting but impactful appearance at Expo 2020 Dubai on October 23.

Following collector Harry Woolf’s death, the family entrusted Christie’s London with 85 masterpieces, which Alexis de Tiesenhausen, International Head of the Russian Art Department, Christie’s, said is a “great privilege”. The collection will go on sale in London on November 29, but enjoyed a moment in the Expo spotlight ahead of the auction.

Woolf began to collect Fabergé in the early 1970s, at a time when he was already a successful businessman and owner of London-based pharmaceutical company Underwoods the Chemists. The result is one of the finest Fabergé collections known to have been curated by a private collector in the past 50 years.

Alexis de Tiesenhausen said: “This collection has been one of the main subjects in commission for the past few decades. And I'm not saying that in a commercial way. I mean, all the museums really valued this collection. Nobody knew it would ever come on the market – it's what we call very ‘fresh’. We are selling it in entirety as a collection. We have 85 lots in the catalogue, with 30 of them here today at Expo 2020.”

Among the exquisite pieces are outstanding examples of objet d'art from the House of Fabergé, from jewelled hardstone animals to decorative photograph frames, miniscule pillboxes, delicate scent bottles, ornate crook handles and intricate jewellery pieces.

De Tiesenhausen has pioneered Christie's Russian art sales in Geneva, New York and London, with the Christie's veteran involved with the successful sale of some of the most significant Russian works of art ever to appear at auction, including The Kazan Collection of Fabergé in New York in 1997, for $4 million.

De Tiesenhausen predicts the sale of Woolf’s highly desirable collection will be similarly stratospheric: “The estimates are very, very steep. I think we're going to have a lot of interest, but it is impossible to predict well in advance. The catalogue only came out last week and we have already been receiving calls,” he says, while underscoring the discrete nature of Fabergé collectors.

The collection has a deceptively childlike quality; a playfulness that belies the intricacy and skill employed when painstakingly crafting these detailed works of art. “Some people will tell you it's kitsch, which is true in a certain way. Or they’ll say it’s too modern, or they don’t like it… but when you give them a magnifying glass and they look at the details and the workmanship, they usually shut up in a matter of seconds,” he says.

“The dexterity of the carving, the polish and the way an item is transformed to hide its functionality to become a work of art is amazing … Let's be honest, they are expensive. I'm not saying collectors play with them, but they love to have them on their desk and to appreciate the fact that there are so few of them. And therein lies their power.”