The egg, thought to have been made in the late 19th century for Russian royalty, was purchased years ago at a U.S. flea market for just $14,000. The buyer was interested in the item for its gold content but later suspected the piece might be even more valuable. The egg was later sold to a private collector. Some estimates put its value as high as $33 million. 

The discovery of the egg is significant because many of the valuable Fabergé creations have been lost to history.

A report in Britain's Telegraph newspaper said that the scrap-metal dealer who bought the egg lived in a modest home in the Midwest. The residence was "next to a highway and a Dunkin' Donuts. There was the egg, next to some cupcakes on the kitchen counter," a Wartski representative told the newspaper.

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For our May silent auction we present this wonderful landscape, by one of the premier landscape artists of the second half of the twentieth century, Mikhail Vasilievich Akinshin.  Akinshin had a unique ability to capture people as well as the hauntingly beautiful landscape of village life. He painted the countryside with emotion and reverence, always full of truth and integrity. Akinshin captured the gentility, vastness and living breath of the countryside of his native Ukraine and Uzbekistan where he studied and lived.  

In this work Akinshin combines the spontaneity of a one time plein air outing together with the bright, particularly Ukrainian, colors that are noted in many artists of the period. Mikhail Vasilievich Akinshin brings a vibrancy and spirit to this piece which marks it as a classic. 

The coming week in London will be all about Russian art as the city's premier auction houses and arts venues kick off the fourth annual Russian Art Week. Auctions of rare and valuable Russian paintings, icons and works of decorative art will be held at all the major auction houses from May 20 to June 7, alongside a series of exceptional exhibitions of work by contemporary Russian artists at galleries and museums around the city.

A biannual event that takes place in November and June, the last Russian Art Week saw the major auction houses taking in £55 million for masterpieces by Bakst, Roerich, Falk and Fabergé. This spring, auction houses Bonhams, Christie's, MacDougall's and Sotheby's will all offer remarkable works of art for sale.

Nikolai Roerich, "Signal Fires of Peace", 1917, £800,000 - £1.2 million

Bonhams' Russian sale will take place at the auction house's new headquarters in London's New Bond Street on June 4th. One of the works that is generating a huge amount of buzz is "Signal Fires of Peace" by Nikolai Roerich, which reappeared recently after having been stripped of its original title and considered lost. Valued at between £800,000 and £1.2 million, the early Roerich masterpiece was inspired by the events of the Russian Revolution and infused with Roerich's characteristic symbolism.

Bonhams is the world's third largest international fine art auction house and set the world record for the most valuable Russian painting ever to be sold in a Russian auction when Nikolai Roerich's "Madonna Laboris" sold for £7.9 million in June 2013.

Vladimir D. Baranoff-Rossin, "Still life with Fruit and Flowers", 1915. Estimate: £700,000-£900,000

Also up for sale at the June 4 Bonhams auction is Vladimir Davidovich Baranoff-Rossiné's "Still life with fruit and flowers" painted between 1910 and 1915. The work is valued at between £700,000 and £900,000. Baranoff-Rossiné travelled to Paris in 1910 where he was exposed to a diverse set of influences and changed his Ukrainian birth-name, Shulim Wolf Baranoff, to the more European-sounding Daniel Rossiné. 

Nikolai N. Ge, Male Nude", 1853, £130,000 - 150,000

Another of the painting highlights in the same sale is "Male Nude" from 1853, a rare example of an early work by Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge, who was best known for his later paintings on monumental religious themes. "Male Nude" was created in 1853 for an exam at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and carries the official wax seal of the Academy. It was awarded a silver medal - the highest level of distinction for a work by a pupil - and is expected to go for between £130,000 and £150,000.

Vasilii Vereshchagin, "The Pearl Mosque at Agra", 1870's-early 1880's,  Estimate: £1,000,000-£1,500,000

The star lot at Christie's is Vasily Vereshchagin's The Pearl Mosque at Agra, painted in the late 1870s to early 1880's. Vereshchagin's intricately detailed view of the mosque interior has not appeared at auction for 95 years, and was last exhibited in New York in 1916.     

Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), "The Heavenly Battle.", 1909. Estimate: £500,000-700,000

Additional paintings in the sale includes a stellar selection of six paintings by Nicholas Roerich from the estate of Margaret Janice Vann. Ranging in value from £40,000 to £250,000, the works represent various mountain vantage points. Formerly held in the collection of Roerich's great American patrons, Louis and Nettie Horch, these paintings are appearing at auction for the first time. Nicholas Roerich was an extremely important figure in the life of Margaret Janice Vann. Part of the proceeds from the sale of this collection will benefit two not-for-profit organizations selected by Ms. Vann that continue to promote the legacy of Nicholas Roerich's teachings; Higher Self Yoga and the Center for Peace through Culture.  

Ivan Aivazovsky, "Alexander the II on the Frozen Neva" Estimate, £ 300,000 - £ 500,000

Alongside the Roerichs, Christie's will offer Ivan Aivazovsky's beautiful and rare Alexander II on the frozen Neva, painted in 1890 (estimate: £300,000-500,000). An internationally celebrated maritime artist, the works of Aivazovsky continue to enrich the collections of numerous renowned collections, including that of the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 

Another highlight of the sale is Aristarkh Lentulov's dynamic masterwork "Landscape with Bridge, Kislovodsk". A fearless innovator and one of the greatest colourists of his time, this painting from 1913 represents the critical point of the artist's career, during which he created a synthesis of Western Cubo-Futurist technique with a native Russian theme. The appearance on the art market of this oil from the acclaimed 'Kislovodsk' series provides collectors with a rare opportunity to acquire a unique piece from the most significant period of this Russian master. 

Aristarkh Lentulov, "Landscape with Bridge, Kislovodsk", Estimate- £ 1,500,000 - £ 2,500,000

Sotheby's returned the largest overall sales figures in November 2014 with £24m and presented the first sale dedicated to Russian contemporary art. It is again offering some exceptional works: the avant-garde pioneer is a wonderful example of his Neo-Primitivist style, and was recorded in the listings of works by Goncharova and Larionov published in 1913 by Eli Eganbyuri.  

Mikhail Larionov, "Kneading Dough", Estimate, £800,000-1,200,000

Kneading Dough is one of the most significant paintings by Mikhail Larionov remaining in private hands. With its flat treatment of the figures, bold outlines and simple composition, it shows all the characteristics of Larionov's best works of the period. It was also once in the celebrated collection of Eugene Robin who owned Larionov's early masterpiece 'Blue Pig' too, now in the centre Pompidou.

Aristarkh Lentulov, "Children with Umbrellas", 1912,  Estimate £600,000-800,000

Kirill Zdanevich, "Café Etoile" 1912 Estimate, £500,000-700,000

Also expected to be popular is Kazimir Malevich's Head of a Peasant, Study for Peasant Funeral (1911). This stunning work was part of an exhibition at the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1927. When Malevich had to return to the Soviet Union before the exhibition closed, he left the works in the charge of the German architect Hugo Häring. This painting is believed to have been a gift to Häring and his wife.

Kazimir Malevich ,"Head of Peasant, Study for Peasant Funeral " 1911 Estimate £600,000-800,000

This is the first major oil painting by Kirill Zdanevich ever to come to auction. Once owned by Mikhail Larionov, the painting gives a fascinating insight into the early Russian avant-garde's fascination with folk art and primitive artists. Depicting the owner of a 'dukhan', or tavern, it was painted during a trip the artist made with his brother to Georgia, and is heavily influenced by the work of Pirosmani, the father of the Georgian avant-garde movement.

22 Works from the Collection of the International Confederation of Artists' Unions 

Alexander A. Deineka, "Young Designer" Estimate £2- 3m

This is perhaps the most exciting for part of Russian art week for us, the sale by Sotheby's of 22 paintings and works on paper from the famous collection of the International Confederation of Artists' Unions, the successor organization of the Union of Artists of the USSR - one of very few bodies entitled to purchase works from artists during the Soviet era. Over several decades the Union has amassed almost 50,000 items, and today rivals the collections of Russia's greatest museums in terms of breadth and variety. This inaugural sale includes museum-quality works by Deineka, Nissky and Pimenov, Stozharov, and Gerasimov, each was acquired directly from the artist and appears on the market for the very first time. 

Yuir I. Pimenov, "Memories of Bread Rationing During the War", Estimate £500,000 - 700,000

Servei V. Gerasimov, "Evening in Mozhaisk", 1959, Estimate, £50,000-70,000

Throughout his life Gerasimov returned often to Mozhaisk, the town near Moscow where he grew up. 'Sergei
Vasilievich was a particularly national artist, particularly Russian', wrote his contemporary, the artist Pavel Korin. 'He grew up amongst the fields and forests of the ancient town of Mozhaisk, not far from the proud and bright fields of Borodino'. In the 1950s and early 1960s he painted a famous series of Mozhaisk landscapes, including a smaller oil, Towards Autumn (1953, Private Collection) taken from the same viewpoint as the present work.

MacDougall's, the Russian art specialist auction house, will feature important works by key figures of the Russian avant-garde, including Robert Falk, Pavel Kuznetsov, Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova and many others. Also of note are top works by Soviet Period artists Arkady Plastov, Alexander Gerasimov, Vladimir Stozharov and Boris Iogansan. Some of the top lots have just returned from Moscow where they were shown with great success; MacDougall's was the only British auction house to have a pre-auction exhibition in Moscow this season. 

Robert Falk, "Boy with a Cap, Sitting on a Chair", c. 1910-1911 £800,000-1,200,000

The appearance on the market of Robert Falk's double-sided composition Boy with a Cap Sitting on a Chair (£800,000-1,200,000) promises to be one of the sensations of London's June Russian sales. This exceptional work was painted in the Bashkir settlement of Maksyutovo to which Falk took his first wife to be treated for consumption with mare's milk in 1910/11. It dates from the time of the first exhibition of the Jack of Diamonds group, a period from which very few works remain in private hands.

Pavel Kuznetsov, "Eastern City. Bukhara", 1910, £1,900,000 - 3,000,000

The highest estimate is for Pavel Kuznetsov's Eastern City. Bukhara (estimate £1,900,000-3,000,000), the most important and best-known canvas from his celebrated Central Asian series of 1912-1915, which was shown at almost every exhibition of the artist's work both during and after his lifetime. This masterpiece represents the culmination of Kuznetsov's efforts to combine new avant-garde principles of fragmented forms with influences of the ancient tradition of icon painting and Central Asian folk art.

The celebrated artistic couple Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova will be particularly well represented. Larionov with three important works: two early impressionistic canvasses painted at his grandmother's house at Tiraspol, Sapins et bouleaux (£700,000-1,200,000) and Une journée de mai (£650,000-900,000), as well as the later, poetic tempera, Still Life with Flowers which he painted in Paris in the 1920s (£400,000-600,000). Larionov's lifelong partner in both romance and art, Natalia Goncharova, painted the same vase and scene in Still Life with Magnolias (£400,000-600,000). 

Petr Konchalovsky,  Dynamo Ice Rink, 1948,  £250,000 - £300,000

Of particular interest to us are the six works the McCarthey Gallery has with MacDougall's, four works by Arkady Plastov and the two works shown here by A. Gerasimov and B. Ioganson.  

Gerasimov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich "Flowers". 23½'' x 30'', 1950, Oil on Canvas, £70,000-120,000

Ioganson, Boris Vladimirovich "By the Window" 23½'' x 31½'', 1964, Oil on Board, £15,000-20,000

In addition to the auction houses, a number of galleries and museums are also getting in on the act. Exhibitions such as "Russian Revolution in Art: Russian Avant-Garde: 1910-1932," at the St. Petersburg Gallery in Cork Street vies for most anticipated with an exceptional exhibition of work by Soviet artist Viktor Popkov at Somerset House. The Calvert 22 Gallery is hosting an exhibition of contemporary Russian photography curated by Kate Bush, "Close and Far: Russian Photography Now," while Erarta Gallery's "Russian Cosmism" will feature a number of contemporary Russian artists.

Other scheduled events range from ballet and theater to talks and academic conferences, marking this as an important week in the calendar of the UK-Russia Year of Culture 2014. Many of the events that begin this week will run throughout the month. 

Viktor Vekselberg

The numbers:  

- 1 billion pounds is the total value of Russian art sold at Sotheby's since 2003.

- 7.9 million pounds is the record price for a Russian picture at a Russian art sale: Nikolai Roerich's Madonna Laboris.

- 35 per cent is the annual growth in demand for Russian art offered for sale at Christie's.

Nikolai Roerich's 1931 "Madonna Laboris"

A year ago in London, Bonhams achieved the world record for a Russian picture at a Russian art sale - Nikolai Roerich's radiant 1931 Madonna Laboris, which sold for £7.9m. Sotheby's recently sold a family portrait by avant-garde master Pyotr Konchalovsky ahead of auction for £4.67m, more than quadruple the artist's previous record.

Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov, "Still Life with Fruit"

  

Alexander M. Gerasimov, "Moscow, Gorky Street" 1947, Estimate, £50,000-70,000, Sotheby's

New York's recent prestige sales of Post-War & Contemporary Art on May 13 and 14 generated more than a billion dollars. Billionaires from more than 30 countries drove bidding to stratospheric levels and, according to Christie's, the Asian bidders were particularly determined. Christie's recorded a sales total of $745 million with a 95% sold rate. Sotheby's sale the following day generated $346 million with an 85% sold rate.

But if prices were staggering, so was the material on offer. Observers agreed such a top-notch group of blue chip contemporary works will rarely be offered together at one sale anytime soon again. The sale featured no fewer than nine lots priced at a minimum of $20 million each, but there was no shortage of eager buyers. New records were set for Alexander Calder, Joseph Cornell, Robert Gober, Joan Mitchell, Barnett Newman, Frank Stella, and Salvatore Scarpitta. Of 72 lots on offer, 68, or 92 percent, were sold. By value the sale achieved 98 percent. 

On May 13, Christie's generated $150.3m from just two works: a colorfield by Mark Rothko (dated 1952) which went for $66.2m, and a Barnett Newman painting titled Black Fire I that was hotly pursued until a final bid of $84.1m some 41 million dollars more than the artist's previous auction record of $39m .  

Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1952, $66.2 million.

Barnett Newman, "Black Fire I," 1961, $84.2 million

Three major Warhols generated $134 million A frequent, if not omnipresent, star of these prestige sales, Andy Warhol was represented by a number of major works: White Marilyn and Race Riot at Christie's, and a the six-in-one self-portrait at Sotheby's. Including fees, these three works generated $134m. The first under the hammer was Race riot, a 1964 work based on a press photo of racial violence in Birmingham Alabama. From a collector's point of view, the work had a number of attractions: a) a much sought-after Warhol subject, b) a goodly size (152.4 x 167.6 cm), c) a repetition in different colors and d) an important provenance: the Mapplethorpe collection. The screen-print on canvas, which had previously sold for $570,000 in 1992, went under the hammer for $62.88m.

Andy Warhol, "White Marilyn," 1962, $41 million

Andy Warhol, "Race Riot," 1964, $62 million

A few minutes later, Christie's presented its second Warhol treasure: a "White Marilyn" with an estimate of $12 - 18 million. One of twelve portraits of the Hollywood star, each with a different color background, the work is "historical" not just because it was created soon after Marilyn's death, but also because it marks a turning point in Warhol's career, being his first series on silk. This emblem of Pop Art was bid all the way to $41.04m, twice its high estimate.

The lot with the highest asking price "in the region of $75 million" was a Francis Bacon triptych, Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards (1984). It sold for $80.8 million, to an Asian buyer on the phone. Bacon's painting of fellow artist Lucian Freud made history at Christie's in November when its $142.4 million sale price set the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.

Francis Bacon, "Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards," 1984, $80.8 million

Jeff Koons's Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Train (1986), stainless steel and bourbon, sold for $33.8 million on an estimate in the region of $30 million. Once again, the work was won by Xin Li, bidding for a client, though it appeared to be a different client than the buyer of the Bacon several lots earlier.

Still, the current record for Koons would have been hard to beat. It stands at $58.4 million, the price paid for Balloon Dog (Orange)  when it was sold at Christie's New York this past November.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's large, fiery Untitled (1981), sold for $34.9 million (estimate: $20-$30 million). The current record for Basquiat is $48.8 million for Dustheads (1982), an acrylic, oilstick, spray enamel, and metallic paint on canvas that sold at Christie's New York this past May on an estimate of $25-35 million.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (1981) Sold for $34.9 million