The most important renovation in Russia

FAF has been chosen by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to assist in the establishment of a Fabergé Museum within the General Staff Building on Palace Square. The renovation of the building, as part of the enlargement of the Hermitage, is considered the most important current renovation in Russia. In the General Staff Building, in galleries close to the Winter Palace, the Fabergé Museum is designated to occupy three large galleries containing

With the completion of the new museum in 2008, the works of St. Petersburg’s native son will have their first home since the unique workshops of Carl Fabergé were shut down in 1918. By dedicating the Fabergé Museum to nurturing new generations of young Russian jewelers and artists, the Hermitage will build a lasting bridge from its great cultural heritage to the fresh demands of the twenty-first century. Those innovative Russian skills of yesteryear—the mastery of material, the respect for craft, the lofty artistic vision—will inspire and strengthen the creative yearnings of the country’s youth today.

Restoration of Mikhailovsky Garden Fence

FAF was also chosen by JT International to undertake the second phase of the Mikhailovsky Garden wrought-iron fence restoration in downtown St. Petersburg. Perhaps the jewel in FAF’s crown of accomplishments is the fence restoration carried out between 1998 and 2002. With this new contract from JTI, under the dynamic leadership of its president and CEO Pierre de Labouchere, FAF was able to restore the magnificent double-paneled gates that face the Church of the Spilled Blood. The contract also allows FAF to maintain the restored sixteen-foot-high Fabergé-style panels. A publication on the complete restoration process is imminent. To request a copy, please send a check for $10.00 to Fabergé Arts Foundation, 910 Seventeenth Street NW, Suite 408, Washington, DC 20006.

Designed by Alfred Parland as one element of the ensemble of the Church of the Spilled Blood, the Mikhailovsky Fence employs two alternating motifs: those of entwining vines and insets of fantastic flowers wrought of steel. This unique piece of architectural jewelry, in the Fabergé style, consists of fifty-two sections of lace-like wrought-iron grill work resting on granite and placed in between stone posts decorated with irregularly shaped colored brick. The massive gates are located in the center of the fence. This beloved fence of St. Petersburg has stood as a familiar landmark since 1907.

On to Sweden for the Young Jewelers Competition in 2007

FAF Advisory Board Member Christian Bolin is leading the effort for Sweden to host the international competition in 2007. We expect jewelers from St. Petersburg and all the Nordic countries to participate in FAF’s sixth biennial competition. The first was held in St. Petersburg in 1996 to commemorate Fabergé’s 150th anniversary.

Faberge Flowers

Fabergé Flowers was published in October 2004 by the noted art house Harry N. Abrams. The first book on the subject of Fabergé’s exquisite jeweled flowers, it combines seventy full-color photographs of these stunning objects with chapters that illuminate the lost world of early Fabergé collectors, among them the crowned heads of Russia and England.

Edited by Joyce Lasky Reed and Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey, the book contains essays by Tatiana Fabergé, Ulla Tillander-Godenhielm, Caroline de Guitaut, Valentin V. Skurlov, Mark A. Schaffer, Alexander von Solodkoff, and Marilyn Swezey.

Reviews have been glowing, and Slavia Books will publish a Russian edition in conjunction with the opening of the Fabergé Museum.