After six days of dedicated surveillance, New Zealand authorities have recovered a diamond-encrusted Fabergé egg from a thief accused of swallowing it.
The 32-year-old man allegedly picked up the egg at Auckland’s Partridge Jewellers and ingested it late last week. The heist was swiftly foiled, as police arrived within minutes of the staff’s report and detained the suspect. “Police can confirm the pendant was recovered,” a police statement said Friday. “It is now in police custody,”
A police officer was assigned to watch over the man while waiting for nature to deliver the pendant back to its owner—and the suspect, in due course, to justice. The special-edition locket, valued at $33,585, was created as a tribute to the coveted Fabergé egg at the center of the James Bond caper Octopussy. Its green guilloché enamel shell opens to reveal an 18-karat yellow gold octopus, set with 60 white diamonds and 15 blue sapphires. The sea creature’s eyes glitter with two black diamond eyes.
“The egg opens to reveal an 18ct yellow gold octopus nestled inside, adorned with white diamond suckers and black diamond eyes,” the Fabergé online description said. “The octopus surprise pays homage to the eponymous antagonist at the centre of the Octopussy film.”
Fabergé is one of the world’s most storied jewelers, famed for the roughly 50 lavish creations commissioned between 1885 and the Russian Revolution in 1917 for the Russian imperial family. Seven are thought to have been lost, and seven remain in private hands, outside of institutions.
In late November, a rare Fabergé egg crafted from crystal and adorned with diamonds sold for £22.9 million (around $30.2 million) at Christie’s London, surpassing the former auction record for a Fabergé egg. The sale was the marquee event in “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection,” whose 48 lots brought in a total of £27.8 million ($37.1 million).
The previous record for a Fabergé egg was set at Christie’s in London in 2007, when the sale of another one went to the Rothschild banking family for £8.9 million ($11.9 million).
