It sat on the kitchen shelf collecting dust for eight years

One phone call later, his flea market find fetched $33 million

He lived in a modest home in the Midwest. In fact his house was next to a highway and a Dunkin’ Donuts … almost like being in the middle of nowhere.

A scrap metal dealer by day and flea market shopper on the weekends.

For this scrap metal dealer, flea markets were the perfect place to find used items made of metals, which he could then re-sell to industrial companies. Metals such as cast aluminum skillets, light steel appliances like AC units, or aluminum soda and vegetable cans.

If he couldn’t sell the scrap items, then he’d smelt them by extracting the metal itself. Other times he’d melt items made of gold and silver, turning them into bars or ingots for resale.

In 2004, sitting in a stall at one of the flea markets he visited, he noticed an odd shaped clock sitting on a 3-inch tripod stand. It caught his attention because it was shiny and gold in color.

He decided it’d be worth checking it out because maybe it’s made of gold? So he walked over to examine the item more closely.

Sure enough it was gold … pure gold. It was also decorated with a bunch of gems. The odd shape was more like that of an egg.

But that’s not all.

Tucked inside the egg was a watch.

Maybe this was some kind of fancy jewelry case?

Whatever it was, he decided to buy it. After all, he could melt the gold down and re-sell the gems … perhaps even the watch itself.

Thinking his flea market find would yield him a handsome profit, he paid $13,302 to take the egg-shaped jewelry case home.

Nothing More Than A Rotten Egg

Before doing anything with his egg-shaped jewelry box, Mr. Scrap Metal Dealer decided why not see if it has any value as is? Maybe he could get a little more for it than what he paid … like $15,000.

He’d be happy with making a quick $1,698 profit from his flea market purchase.

However the problem was, many of the people he showed it to said it wasn’t worth what he originally paid. He even took it to a few jewelry stores.

But again they told him the same thing … it’s not worth that kind of money.

And who can blame them?

I’ve never met a woman who asked, “please honey buy me a watch and make sure it comes in an egg?”

Not wanting to be out all that money, he decided to do a little more research on what exactly he had bought.

However, that research would have to wait until he had some spare time.

So he put his flea market find on the kitchen shelf.

And that’s where the lonely little egg-shaped case sat for eight years.

It wasn’t until 2012 that he decided to do the actual research.

Holly Molly Easter Egg

For people of Catholic faith and other religions, Easter is a notable event … one observed in April.

Of course families across the globe celebrate by going to church in the morning, gathering for dinners in the evening. During the day, it’s the traditional Easter egg hunt with the kids.

However for one family in particular Easter was the most cherished religious holiday of all. But instead of Easter being the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring, this family celebrated it on the Sunday after the first full moon after Passover.

That’s because they followed the Julian Calendar, which was adopted under Julius Caesar’s rule in 45 B.C. It’s also because they were Orthodox Russians.

At one point in time, they were a pretty popular family. And a very rich one too.

I’m talking about the Royal Romanov family headed by Tsar Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodorovna.

The Royal Romanov Family

As for Easter, the Tsar would give his wife a custom made egg as a gift to celebrate the holiday. It’s something he started doing in 1885.

That’s when he approached well-known Russian goldsmith and jeweler, Karl Gustavovich Faberge (also known as Peter Carl Faberge) and asked him to create the jeweled eggs.

Tsar Alexander had two conditions for each one: (1) must be true works of art and (2) have a surprise element inside.

For the 1887 Easter celebration, Faberge had one of his goldsmith design an egg that sat on little tripod, with a clock on the outside. And when Maria Feodorovna opened the egg, inside was a gold watch made by Swiss watch maker, Vacheron-Constantin.

Of course Tsarina Romanov loved her Easter gift, which was known as The Third Imperial Egg. She stored it, along with the other eggs made on shelves inside a glass cabinet.

This way guests visiting their house, the Alexander Palace could see the fabulously crafted Faberge eggs.

The Royal Egg tradition was passed down to other generations of the Romanov family, including Tsar Nicholas II. He ruled as Emperor of Russia starting in 1868.

Unfortunately his reign was short lived. The Bolsheviks revolted against the monarchy and in 1918 they took back the throne.

As for Tsar Nicholas and his family … sadly, they died in the most gruesome way: shot to death in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

Lost in Egg Heaven

Now when the Romanov family was executed in July 1918, all of their palaces were ransacked by the Bolsheviks and citizens of Russia.

Their worthy possessions, including all of their family jewels, and anything made of silver and gold were taken to the Gokhran building in Moscow. Some of the items were sold off, while many remained locked in trunks.

That was until 1921 with the signing of the Riga Peace Treaty. The Bolsheviks had pledged to pay Poland 30 million rubles of gold. To meet that obligation, they sold off many of the Romanov’s items made of gold.

It wasn’t just the Bolsheviks that did the selling either. Some of the jewels were bought by individuals who sold them on the open market.

Like Norman Weiss who purchased a variety of Romanov items including the imperial wedding crown, silver frames and cases. He bought the lot for a total of 50,000 pounds.

In 1932, Armand Hammer bought a huge haul of Romanov treasures including several Imperial Eggs. He later opened an antique shop, where he sold the Imperial Easter Eggs that once belonged to the empresses.

He also sold jeweled frames of the Tsars and Tsarinas, a Fabergé designed cigarette case, the Tsarina’s notebook embossed with her monogram and an Imperial crown, among many other items.

And then there was looting … lots of it.

No one knows where the items went and who took them, just that they were missing including the Third Imperial Fabergé Egg … the same egg given to Maria Feodorovna in 1887.

The Devils in the Egg Details

Now when Mr. Scrap Metal Dealer (who by the way remains anonymous to this day) started doing research on his egg, he looked through a bunch of newspapers.

That’s when he came across an old photograph of a charity exhibit held in Saint Petersburg Russia in 1902. Among the items in the photograph was a glass case with several Imperial Faberge Eggs sitting on the shelves.

Looking much closer at the photograph, he noticed that one of the eggs looked exactly like the one he bought at the flea market.

The Missing Imperial Egg

Next, he typed “egg” and “Vacheron Constantin” into Google’s search bar. An article in the Telegraph popped up in the results. Kieran McCarthy, director of London antique dealer Wartski was interviewed in the article.

In that interview, he mentioned how the Imperial Eggs had distinctive markings including Faberge’s makers mark, and the Royal Family’s mark which was a double-headed eagle.

Mr. Scrap Metal Dealer put down the newspaper and took his egg-shaped jewelry case off the kitchen shelf. He looked closely at the markings and sure enough they matched the description in the newspaper article.

Hold those eggs … could this be the missing Third Imperial Easter Egg?

What’s a man to do when he finds out he might have a piece of treasure that once belonged to the Royal Imperial Family of Russia?

You make a phone call directly to Kieran McCarthy and let him know what you found. Then you take a bunch of photographs of your egg and hop on a plane to London to meet Mr. McCarthy in person.

When Kieran McCarthy saw those photographs, he couldn’t believe his own eyes. He said, “It was like the Holy Grail walking through the front door of our gallery. I was absolutely shivering with excitement.”

But of course the only way to be sure this egg was the real Egg was to see it in person.

To His Egg Delight

It wasn’t much later that Mr. McCarthy traveled to the scrap metal dealer’s house.

And that’s where he first laid eyes on the egg, which was sitting on the kitchen table next to of all things … a cupcake.

He thoroughly examined the egg, its markings, and the watch tucked inside. A smile slowly made its way across his face.

Then he turned to Mr. Scrap Metal man and told him this was indeed the Third Imperial Egg. Mr. Scrap Metal man dropped to floor, almost passing out.

The Third Imperial Egg

Kieran asked the man if he’d be interested in selling the Imperial Egg. And if so, he could fetch a mighty good price for it … far more than he paid at the flea market.

Like 2,471 more times!

Kieran McCarthy lined up a private buyer, who it is said bought the Imperial Egg for an estimated $33 million. However, for privacy reasons Mr. McCarthy can neither confirm nor deny the amount (wink, wink).

But he does say that the Mr. Scrap Metal man received a life-changing amount of money.

A Royal Collection

The Third Imperial Egg was one of 50 made for the Romanov Family.

The whereabouts of 42 of them are known. Ten of the Imperial Eggs now nest in the armory of the Moscow Kremlin. Nine are part of the collection of Russian oligarch Viktor Wekselberg, which are on display in the Fabergé Museum in Saint Petersburg. 

The others Eggs are cooped … I mean housed at different museums including The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, MD; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Some Eggs lay in the hands of private collectors. Five of the Royal Eggs are believed to have been destroyed. And to this day, seven are still missing. They are from the years 1886, 1889, 1897, 1902, 1903 and 1909.

Their whereabouts are not known, however, each one is worth millions of dollars.

Mr. McCarthy says, “Always keep your eyes open. There are always treasures out there to discover.”

So run, don’t walk to your nearest flea market. There could be an Egg waiting to be hatched.

Editor’s Note: The markings on Mr. Scrap Metal’s Imperial Egg were the same found on a prayer icon that was passed down to my father … who coincidentally was born in Moscow in 1932. And turns out that icon belonged to a Russian Royal Princess. It’s a story I’ll share in an upcoming issue.

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Awesome Quotes by Awesome People

“The most luxurious possession, the richest treasure anybody has, is his personal dignity.”— Jackie Robinson

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