Keep your Cadburys, make mine Fabergé
April 3, 2014 6:26 AM Subscribe
New York City is hosting the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt from April 1 - 17.
Using a smartphone app, you can discover more than 200 works of public art hidden across the five boroughs. Following the hunt, the eggs will be on display at Rockefeller Center for a week prior to being auctioned for charity. (A prior egg hunt in London in 2012 raised around £4m.)
The eggs are inspired by the works of Peter Carl Fabergé (previously), who created intricate jewelry and trinkets (picture frames, cigarette cases, etc.) for wealthy Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th century. He's perhaps best known for the imaginative Easter eggs he created for the Russian royal family from 1885 to 1917. While some eggs were lost after the Revolution, many remain in private, royal and museum collections throughout the world.
Last month, a scrap metal dealer in the midwest U.S. discovered that the egg he bought at a flea market for $14,000, intending to melt it down, was actually a lost Romanov treasure valued at more than $20 million.
Using a smartphone app, you can discover more than 200 works of public art hidden across the five boroughs. Following the hunt, the eggs will be on display at Rockefeller Center for a week prior to being auctioned for charity. (A prior egg hunt in London in 2012 raised around £4m.)
The eggs are inspired by the works of Peter Carl Fabergé (previously), who created intricate jewelry and trinkets (picture frames, cigarette cases, etc.) for wealthy Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th century. He's perhaps best known for the imaginative Easter eggs he created for the Russian royal family from 1885 to 1917. While some eggs were lost after the Revolution, many remain in private, royal and museum collections throughout the world.
Last month, a scrap metal dealer in the midwest U.S. discovered that the egg he bought at a flea market for $14,000, intending to melt it down, was actually a lost Romanov treasure valued at more than $20 million.
I love these public art happenings.
posted by xingcat at 6:56 AM on April 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by xingcat at 6:56 AM on April 3, 2014 [2 favorites]
There are 3 right by my subway stop. I was sort of ignoring them, but actually, after reading the history of the 50 Faberge eggs in the dailymail link, I like their backstory more than I imagined I would. Dude was just a jeweler who made cufflinks, and the tsar asks him to make a nice looking easter egg? It's a pretty cool story.
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 7:01 AM on April 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 7:01 AM on April 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
Just saw one of the "found" eggs in Dean & DeLuca, in SoHo.
Are you totally sure? Because if someone were to ask me where they could get a carton of Faberge eggs, the Dean & Deluca in SoHo would be my first guess.
posted by griphus at 7:06 AM on April 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
Are you totally sure? Because if someone were to ask me where they could get a carton of Faberge eggs, the Dean & Deluca in SoHo would be my first guess.
posted by griphus at 7:06 AM on April 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
Fabergé is a former brand of Unilever that was bought by a private equity shop in 2009.
posted by grobstein at 7:16 AM on April 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by grobstein at 7:16 AM on April 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
I.e., this is a clever viral marketing push by a new jewelry company whose only connection to the old House of Fabergé is the passage of legal trademark protections through a sequence of holding companies.
posted by grobstein at 7:18 AM on April 3, 2014
posted by grobstein at 7:18 AM on April 3, 2014
On the other hand, that's only slightly more crass than the Faberge eggs themselves, so sure, whatever.
It disturbs me the extent to which people enjoy Faberge eggs. They stand for everything that is wrong with the world (and probably art) as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Sara C. at 7:29 AM on April 3, 2014
It disturbs me the extent to which people enjoy Faberge eggs. They stand for everything that is wrong with the world (and probably art) as far as I'm concerned.
posted by Sara C. at 7:29 AM on April 3, 2014
> They stand for everything that is wrong with the world (and probably art) as far as I'm concerned.
I'm guessing that's a major part of the fascination.
I want to be around to see one hatch.
posted by jfuller at 7:37 AM on April 3, 2014
I'm guessing that's a major part of the fascination.
I want to be around to see one hatch.
posted by jfuller at 7:37 AM on April 3, 2014
I'm hoping to go around and see some of these over the next few weeks! I'm one of the few people left on earth that doesn't have a smartphone, though, so I'll probably have to wait for the full map to go up.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:48 AM on April 3, 2014
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:48 AM on April 3, 2014
One of these it outside of my office (actually there may be two, but I can't remember for sure). It's a neat idea, but not really my thing.
I do like public art that proffers involvement, though. It reminds me a bit of the CowParade from a few years ago.
posted by staccato signals of constant information at 7:51 AM on April 3, 2014
I do like public art that proffers involvement, though. It reminds me a bit of the CowParade from a few years ago.
posted by staccato signals of constant information at 7:51 AM on April 3, 2014
This will not be good for my $1,500 a day Fabergé egg habit.
posted by windbox at 8:50 AM on April 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by windbox at 8:50 AM on April 3, 2014 [3 favorites]
I read about these a couple of days ago and didn't think all that much of them - how many cows / pianos / lunchboxes / other iterations of this can there be? Half the "artists" are just phoning in their projects at this point and they generally look like the art you see in the hallways of middle schools.
But I saw a few of them in and around the Time Warner Center yesterday, and I have to say the attention to detail (at least on the 5-6 I saw) was pretty beautiful.
posted by Mchelly at 9:11 AM on April 3, 2014
But I saw a few of them in and around the Time Warner Center yesterday, and I have to say the attention to detail (at least on the 5-6 I saw) was pretty beautiful.
posted by Mchelly at 9:11 AM on April 3, 2014
Man, I wish I could do this. Is there some kind of online version? :)
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:01 PM on April 3, 2014
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:01 PM on April 3, 2014
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posted by R. Mutt at 6:53 AM on April 3, 2014