Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Who was the owner of Red Cross with Imperial Portraits (Fabergé egg) between Feb 1947 and May 1947?
Red Cross with Imperial Portraits ( Fabergé egg ) The Red Cross with Imperial portraits egg ( or the Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg ) is a jewelled and enameled Easter egg made by Henrik Wigström ( 1862–1923 ) under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1915 , for Nicholas II of Russia , who presented the Fabergé egg to his mother , the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna , in the same year . Design . The Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg is made of silver , with the shell surrounded by a series of horizontal bands edged in gold . The bands each have a different guilloche pattern and are covered in white enamel . Two red crosses , made of enamel , are on either side of the egg . One includes the date 1914 and the other 1915 . Inscribed on the outside of the egg are the words , Greater Love hath no man than this , to lay down his life for his friends . Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovnas monogram is displayed on the top of the shell . Surprise . The surprise is a hinged , folding screen of five oval miniature portraits of women from the House of Romanov , each wearing the uniform of the Red Cross . The miniatures were possibly painted by Vasily Ivanovich Zuiev ( active with Faberge from 1903–1918 ) . The portraits are of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia , Nicholas IIs sister , Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia , his eldest daughter , Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna , Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia , the Tsars second daughter , and the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna , the Tsars first cousin . Each portrait is painted on ivory and is situated in a mother-of-pearl and gold screen that folds so that it may fit inside the egg . The inside of the egg is velvet-lined to secure the enfolded frame . On the back of each portrait is a golden monogram of the sitter . History . Maria Fyodorovna , Tsar Nicholas IIs mother , served with the Red Cross during the 1877 Russo-Turkish war , and was later president of the Red Cross from 1894 till her death . When the Tsar presented the Imperial Red Cross Egg to her at Eastertide 1915 , she was still serving as head of the Russian branch of the International Red Cross . At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 , Alexandra and her older daughters , Olga and Tatiana , enrolled as trainee nurses and the Imperial palaces were converted into provisional hospitals . Following the collapse of the Romanov dynasty during the Russian Revolution , the Dowager Empress was one of the few immediate family members to escape the Red Army . In April 1919 she fled to her native home of Denmark , leaving the Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg behind . In 1930 , the Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg was sold with nine other Imperial eggs by the Antikvariat to the Armand Hammer Galleries in New York City . It was the first of five Imperial Faberge eggs purchased by Lillian Thomas Pratt , the wife of John Lee Pratt , in 1933 . Her Fabergé collection was willed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond , Virginia , upon her death in 1947 . The Imperial Red Cross Easter Egg is currently on view as part of the European Decorative Art Collection .