Present. One such exhibit was
held at Harrods in 2014 with
loans from the Liechtenstein
Landesmuseum and other private
lenders displayed alongside works
by the present Fabergé company
shown in Harrods’ Jewelry
Department.
My every day work is presently of
an archival nature, for instance
writing or correcting academic
texts, as well as “separating chaff
from grain” – i.e. identifying the
myriads of forgeries obfuscating
the Fabergé market.
Q3. In the mid 2000’s
you curated “Fabergé in
America”. What was the
inspiration in bringing it to
America? And how did the
public respond?
GVH: “Fabergé in America”,
held in 1996/97, was my idea
of selecting and exhibiting the
finest original Fabergé treasures
exclusively from American
museums and Private Collections.
I organized the catalogue around
the leading collectors connected
with the House of Fabergé from
1900 to the present. A healthy
injection of capital from Fabergé
and an excellent PR campaign
drove the number of visitors to
an unexpected 400,000. The
doors of the exhibition had to be
temporarily closed on weekends,
a rare occurrence at The Met, so
much were spectators enthralled
by this display of treasures. For
the first time, one of the present
suppliers of enamel wares to
Fabergé, Victor Mayer was also
permitted to exhibit its creations.
I try to give each one of my
exhibitions a theme. For example,
Munich in 1986 was mostly
dedicated to objects owned
by relatives of the Russian
Imperial family, including the
British and Danish royal families.
A later exhibition (Munich 2003)
was centered on recreating
society life in St. Petersburg with
costumes, uniforms and portraits
from the Hermitage Museum.
An additional section was called
“Fabergé and Cartier, Rivals at
the Russian Imperial Court”, which
by contrast to Fabergé, included
over 200 works by the French
jeweler, mostly from the Musée
Cartier in Geneva, but also from
Private Collections.
Q4. Of all the pieces you
exhibited in Germany, the
U.S. and globally, including
pieces from the Fabergé
vault and included in private
collections, which pieces do
you believe would have been
favoured by the last Tsar? And
which one is your personal
favourite?
GVH: Among the 50 Easter
Eggs crafted by Fabergé for the
Romanov family between 1885
and 1916, 47 survive, and of
the 3 missing, one was recently
July 2020
Polo De’Marco