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RAPAPORT... The Oklahoma City Museum of Art will exhibit "Fabergé: Jeweler to the Tsars," highlighting 230 jewels from the brand, from June 20 to September 27.
"This exhibition represents a double honor for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art — the opportunity to collaborate with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and to showcase the largest Fabergé collection outside of Russia," said E. Michael Whittington, the museum's president and CEO. "We are proud to present such an extraordinary collection of treasures to our community." One of the treasured eggs on view will include the "Imperial Tsesarevich Easter Egg" of 1912, which was a gift to Empress Alexandra from her husband, Emperor Nicholas II. The egg commemorates their son, Alexsei, who nearly died the previous year of hemophilia. For the shell, craftsmen joined six wedges of highly prized lapis lazuli and hid the seams with an elaborate gold filigree encasement. Inside the egg, a diamond-encrusted Romanov family crest frames a two-sided portrait of the young child. The museum serves more than 135,000 visitors annually and hosts permanent collections covering a period of five centuries, highlighting art from European and the U.S. from the 19th and 20th centuries, a growing collection of contemporary art and a comprehensive collection of glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly.
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