Fabergé brings scavenger-style egg hunt to NYC

This diamond and ruby pendant will be one of the prizes offered to the winners of Fabergé’s Big Egg Hunt, taking place from April 1 to 26 in New York City.New York--This spring, New York City will play host to the world’s largest egg hunt.

The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt is moving to the Big Apple in April, where up to 300 eggs will be placed throughout the city for more than three weeks.

The eggs are designed and handcrafted by leading artists, designers, architects and brands, including Tracey Emin, Mark Quinn, Zaha Hadid, Ronnie Wood, Peter Beard, Diane von Fürstenberg, Marchesa, Olivier Theyskens, and Bruce Weber.

The Fabergé Madison Avenue boutique will feature one of the exceptional designs.

The event will take place from April 1 to 26. The general public is encouraged to participate in the egg scavenger hunt, Fabergé said.

Those who participate will have the opportunity to win one of three specially designed jewelry egg pendants in gold and diamonds set with Zambian emeralds, Mozambican rubies or Zambian amethysts donated by Gemfields, which acquired Fabergé in January 2013. The combined retail price of these pieces is more than $125,000.

Fabergé will partner with Sotheby’s to auction off the collectible eggs at the end of the event.

Mark Shand, founder of the charity Elephant Family, started the Big Egg Hunt as a way of raising funds for his non-profit, which is trying to save the Asian elephant from extinction.

This year’s hunt will benefit Elephant Family as well as Studio in a School, a non-profit that brings visual arts and professional artists to more than 150 New York public schools each year.

“The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt is a wonderful example of how people all over the world can come together to make a difference,” Shand said. “After the success of the London event, I couldn’t be happier to bring this to New York with an exciting roster of exceptional talent, and to raise awareness and funds for these important organizations.”

The inaugural Big Egg Hunt in London in 2012 set the Guinness World Record for the most entrants in an egg hunt competition at 12,773, and raised more than $1.5 million.

The month before, the Big Egg Hunt also set the record for the most expensive chocolate egg sold at auction (non-jeweled) at $11,107.