LONDON (AP) — A rare crystal and diamond Fabergé egg crafted for Russia’s ruling family before it was toppled by revolution is going up for auction, valued at more than 20 million pounds ($26.4 million).
Christie’s auction house says the Winter Egg is just one of seven of the opulent ovoids remaining in private hands. It will be offered for sale at Christie’s London headquarters on Tuesday.
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The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Head of Department Margo Organesian looks towards the Winter Egg by Faberge as it is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The 4-inch (10-centimeter) tall egg is made from finely carved rock crystal, covered in a delicate snowflake motif wrought in platinum and 4,500 tiny diamonds. It opens to reveal a removable tiny basket of bejewelled quartz flowers symbolizing spring.
Margo Oganesian, the head of Christie's Russian art department, likened it to a luxurious Kinder Surprise chocolate.
The Winter Egg is a superb example of craft and design, “the ‘Mona Lisa’ for decorative arts," Oganesian said.
One of just two created by female designer Alma Pihl, the egg was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II for his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna as an Easter present in 1913. Pihl's other egg is owned by Britain’s royal family.
Craftsman Peter Carl Fabergé and his company created more than 50 of the eggs for Russia’s imperial family between 1885 and 1917, each elaborately unique and containing a hidden surprise. Czar Alexander III started the tradition by presenting an egg to his wife each Easter. His successor, Nicholas II, extended the gift to his wife and mother.
The Romanov royal family ruled Russia for 300 years before it was ousted by the 1917 revolution. Nicholas and his family were executed in 1918.
Bought by a London dealer for 450 pounds when the cash-strapped Communist authorities sold off some of Russia’s artistic treasures in the 1920s, the egg changed hands several times. It was believed lost for two decades until it was auctioned by Christie’s in 1994 for more than 7 million Swiss francs ($5.6 million at the time). It sold again in 2002 for $9.6 million.
Now it is expected to surpass the record $18.5 million paid at a 2007 Christie’s auction for another Fabergé egg created for the Rothschild banking family.
There are 43 surviving imperial Fabergé eggs, most in museums.
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Head of Department Margo Organesian looks towards the Winter Egg by Faberge as it is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Winter Egg by Faberge is displayed at Christie's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025, it is expected to sell for in excess of 20 million UK Pounds when it is auctioned on Dec. 2. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he will soon sign an order to pay all Department of Homeland Security employees who have gone without paychecks during the record-long partial government shutdown that has reached 48 days.
Despite that unilateral move announced in a social media post, the funding lapse for some DHS needs is likely to stretch into next week as the House contemplates passing a Senate plan it had previously rejected to fund the bulk of the agency, though not its immigration enforcement operations.
Trump used a similar maneuver to resume pay for the Transportation Security Administration after many employees had called out from work, resulting in long delays at airport security lines for travelers. Trump's latest intervention is expected to apply to other non-law enforcement employees at the department, including many employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and the agency responsible for coordinating federal cybersecurity efforts.
Trump said their families “have suffered far too long.”
“Nevertheless, help is on the way for our Brave and Patriotic Public Servants who have continued to work hard, and do their part to protect and defend our Country,” Trump said.
There was no legislative resolution Thursday after both the House and Senate met for just a few minutes in pro forma sessions. Nonetheless, the Republican leadership and Trump have coalesced around a plan to fully fund DHS as part of a two-step process. The agreement puts the congressional leaders on the same page for ending the impasse after they had pursued separate paths that resulted in Congress leaving Washington last week for its spring recess without a fix.
During the brief sessions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., put aside the House plan to fund the entire department for 60 days. Then the House met briefly without taking up the bipartisan Senate plan that had been worked out with Democrats, though Thune is looking toward eventual passage.
“I don’t know the particulars around what the House will do with it,” Thune told reporters. “My assumption is, at some point, hopefully, they’ll move it.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Thune, announced Wednesday that they would return to the Senate measure, which funds most of DHS with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Republicans will try later to fund those agencies through party-line spending legislation that could take months to finish.
Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could potentially still face opposition from the GOP’s own ranks even though Trump has given his support.
Johnson’s embrace of the two-track plan marks a sharp reversal from less than a week ago, when he derided it as a “joke” and said he was “quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”
Public backlash was swift after lawmakers left Washington last week without a resolution, with the tabloid website TMZ posting paparazzi-style photos of members at airports and out of town. The regularly scheduled break, while drawing criticism, is typically used by lawmakers to reconnect with constituents and travel abroad.
Johnson now appears to be on board. But securing support from his own conference could prove more difficult after a sizable group of House Republicans blasted the Senate-passed bill last week.
House Republicans held a conference call later Thursday to discuss the next steps. The GOP leadership indicated to lawmakers that it does no expect to recall them to Washington from the spring recess; they are due back April 14.
Lawmakers also heard from White House budget director Russ Vought. The White House is expected to release Trump’s 2027 budget proposal on Friday.
Democrats in both chambers were aligned last week with the Senate's plan, and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York blamed House Republicans on Thursday for taking no action on it during the brief morning session.
“The deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the DHS shutdown and hurting federal workers who are missing another paycheck,” Schumer said.
Johnson will look to persuade the most conservative lawmakers within his conference to go along with the two-step approach agreed upon with the president, and Trump's latest social media post could help. The president thanked Thune and Johnson for their work, and sought to project Republican unity.
“Republicans are UNIFIED, and moving forward on a plan that will reload funding for our FANTASTIC Border Patrol and Immigration Enforcement Officers,” Trump wrote.
Many in the GOP conference have taken the stand that ICE and the Border Patrol need to be included as part of any funding agreement.
“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., posted on X. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”
Meanwhile, the budget package that Trump wants voted on by June 1 is expected to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the remainder of Trump’s term, as a way to try to ensure those agencies are no longer at risk from Democrats objecting to his immigration enforcement agenda.
Thune acknowledged the potential hurdles to that route, such as efforts to expand the scope of the bill. He said the goal is to keep it “as narrow and focused as possible” in order to pass it “with haste.”
The vast majority of DHS employees have reported to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have gone without pay. As more Transportation Security Administration agents called out from work, there was increasing frustration for air travelers confronted by long waits at some airport security lines. Those bottlenecks appeared to be clearing this week as agents began receiving backpay after Trump signed an executive order.
About 10,000 FEMA workers are being paid because their wages come out of the non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund. At least 4,000 FEMA employees are furloughed or currently working without pay.
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., gestures as he speaks to reporters outside the chamber after passing a a measure by unanimous consent that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security if the House agrees, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill,Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a news conference after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
