Easter Eggs
Solovyova L.N.

Russian Souvenir
Album
M.: "Inlerbook Business", 1997, 96 c., илл.

Easter eggs are well-known Russian memorabilia, whose fame outside of this country is probably second only to painted wooden matryoshka dolls. Lately, however, the interest toward the Easter egg has been of a special nature. It is explained by its somewhat illegal status during 70 years. Antique Easter eggs were stored away in different museums, almost inaccessible to the public. It goes without saying that in Soviet times the good tradition of giving and receiving artistically painted Easter eggs on the bright holiday of Christ's Resurrection almost disappeared.
In the late 1980 s forgotten customs and rituals returned, including the old Russian tradi-tion of a triple kiss and the giving of an Easter egg. Easter eggs are exhibited in and out-side of Russia. In 1990, the first exhibition of Russian porcelain Easter eggs from the National History Museum was displayed in Italy. After it, exhibitions of eggs made by the Faberge firm for the Russian imperial family, kept by museums of Moscow's Kremlin and New York's Malcolm Forbes Collection, were shown in San Diego, California, and then in Moscow.
In 1992, as part of the International Sergian Congress, honoring Sergius of Radonezh, an exhibition of Easter eggs took place at the Central House of the Artist.
Recently, the famous "Winter Easter Egg by Faberge, which Emperor Nicholas II gave to his mother. Empress Maria Fedorovna, for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, has been sold for a sensational sum of $7.5 million at a Christie's auction in Geneva.
December of 1993 saw the creation in Moscow of the International Club "Ovo-art" (from Latin ovo, egg), which unites admirer, collectors, and artists. The club intends to revive in Russia the tradition of making Easter eggs and everything that was connected with them.