Fabergé Museum, Saint Petersburg
The Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg is a privately funded museum dedicated to the decorative arts of Imperial Russia, with a particular focus on the work of the jewellery house of Peter Carl Fabergé. Opened in 2013 in the Shuvalov Palace on the Fontanka Embankment, it was established by Viktor Vekselberg’s Aurora Foundation after Vekselberg acquired a group of nine Imperial Easter eggs — the largest single collection of Fabergé eggs in the world — from the Forbes family collection in 2004. The museum also holds thousands of pieces of Russian silver, jewellery, and decorative objects from the 18th to the early 20th century.
At a glance
- Type
- Private museum of Russian decorative arts and jewellery
- Period
- Shuvalov Palace: 1840s; museum opened 2013
- Style
- Neo-Baroque palace interior (Shuvalov Palace)
- Location
- Fontanka Embankment 21, Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Coordinates
- 59.9347° N, 30.3407° E
Overview
The museum occupies Shuvalov Palace, a magnificent mid-nineteenth-century aristocratic residence on the Fontanka River, one of Saint Petersburg’s grandest historic waterways. The Aurora Foundation’s collection represents the most significant assembly of Fabergé objects in Russia, returned to the country after decades in Western hands. In addition to the celebrated Easter eggs, the museum displays several thousand objects of Russian applied art — silver table services, enamelwork, jewelled miniatures, clocks, frames, and cigarette cases — that together document the extraordinary refinement of craft culture in late Imperial Russia.
History
The house of Fabergé, founded in Saint Petersburg in 1842 by Gustav Fabergé and brought to international fame under his son Peter Carl Fabergé (1846–1920), produced elaborate decorative objects for the Russian Imperial family and the European aristocracy from the 1880s until the Russian Revolution of 1917 forced the firm to close. The 52 surviving Imperial Easter eggs, commissioned annually by Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II for the Empress, are the most celebrated products of the firm. After the Revolution the eggs were scattered globally; the Forbes family’s nine-egg collection, assembled from 1960 onward, was purchased by Viktor Vekselberg in 2004 for a reported $100 million and eventually installed in the Shuvalov Palace when the Fabergé Museum opened on 19 November 2013.
What you see
The museum’s principal gallery presents the nine Imperial Easter eggs in individual vitrines in a dedicated hall, allowing close examination of their extraordinary technical virtuosity — miniature paintings, mechanical surprises, precious stone inlay, and guilloche enamel in colours Fabergé developed exclusively. The eggs on display include the Renaissance Egg (1894), the Caucasus Egg (1893), the Twelve Monogram Egg (1895), and the Winter Egg (1913), among others. Further galleries present the broader collection of Russian silver and goldsmithery, enamel objects from the Klingert and Rückert workshops, and a substantial display of works by other celebrated court jewellers. The palace rooms themselves, with their gilded stucco, parquet floors, and painted ceilings, provide a visually congruent setting for the Imperial-era objects.
Cultural significance
The Fabergé Museum represents the largest single repatriation of Imperial Russian cultural property of the post-Soviet era, and the eggs it houses are among the most technically accomplished small-scale luxury objects ever made, representing the pinnacle of nineteenth-century European goldsmithery. The museum has become one of Saint Petersburg’s most visited cultural institutions, rivalling the Hermitage and the Russian Museum for the attention of visitors interested in the material culture of Imperial Russia. Shuvalov Palace itself is a protected monument listed in the State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects of the Russian Federation.
Practical information
- Address
- Fontanka Embankment 21, Saint Petersburg, 191023, Russia
- Opening hours
- Check official website for current hours; generally open daily except Wednesdays
- Admission
- Paid entry; check official website for current ticket prices
- Website
- fabergemuseum.ru
Getting there
The museum is located on the Fontanka Embankment in central Saint Petersburg, approximately 1.5 km from the Hermitage. The nearest metro station is Gostiny Dvor (Line 3, green) or Nevsky Prospekt (Lines 2 and 3), both approximately 10–15 minutes’ walk. Bus and trolleybus lines serving Nevsky Prospekt and the Fontanka are the most convenient surface options. The museum is easily included in a walking itinerary along the Fontanka between the Mikhailovsky Castle and the Anichkov Bridge.