The case of the missing Faberge egg could be a step closer to being cracked – amid claims it is locked away in a Lancashire bank vault.
The £30million treasure has not been seen since it was sold at a Mayfair jewellers 65 years ago.
But now the family of a dead Cold War ‘spy’ say he owned the bejewelled egg and used to show it off to relatives.
The missing Faberge egg was last seen when it was sold in a jewellers in Mayfair 65 years ago
A descendant of Dr Maxwell Naesmyth Wilcock claimed he may have left a £30million Faberge egg in a bank vault in Preston, Lancashire
The Necessaire egg is one of two known to have survived the Russian Revolution whose whereabouts are unknown, and only a basic description was available until mother Kellie Bond uncovered a picture online.
It is the biggest clue so far in the hunt for the egg. The Daily Mail published the photo last week and now Robin Maudsley, of Preston, has come forward to claim that his cousin Dr Maxwell Wilcock may have owned the egg.
Dr Wilcock, who went under a dozen aliases, lived close to the Wartski jewellers in London where the egg was sold in June 1952. Its buyer was listed only as ‘stranger’.
Mr Maudsley says his 6ft 6in cousin, who was pictured in Moscow’s Red Square in the 1950s, had boasted of owning a Faberge egg containing a tiny jewelled thimble and a pair of scissors.
Maxwell Wilcock travelled to Russia in the 1950s during the Cold War
The missing egg was designed as an ornamental case with contents including tweezers, a thimble and scissors. Mr Maudsley, executor of his cousin’s estate when he died in 2011, claims possessions were left in an Preston safety deposit box that remains unopened.
The 65-year-old said: ‘Uncle Max, as we knew him, was a very mysterious, enigmatic character. He only lived a few blocks away from the dealer which sold it in 1952, and calling himself a “stranger” is exactly the sort of thing he’d do.
‘I have his old passports and he travelled to dozens of countries as a “diplomat” or “explorer”, and he was using at least 13 different names.’ Mr Maudsley said that since Dr Wilcock’s death aged 90, two relatives had revealed he once owned a Faberge egg.
‘Apparently he used to carry it around in his pocket,’ he said.
The egg is one of 50 fashioned by Peter Carl Faberge from 1885 to 1917 for Russian Tsar Alexander III and his son Nicholas II.
Today, 43 Faberge eggs are in museums and private collections. Of the seven still missing, only two are known to have survived the 1917 revolution – including the Necessaire, which was sold for £1,250, about £36,000 today.
Passport stamps show Dr Wilcock, who was born in Oldham, was in the UK when the egg was sold, and Mr Maudsley said he put items in the bank vault later in the 1950s. He added: ‘What did he put in there – was the egg amongst the items?’ Mr Maudsley has contacted the bank but says he has so far not obtained authorisation to access Dr Wilcock’s possessions.
Dr Wilcock’s descendants have not been allowed to access the bank vault to see whether the Faberge egg is among his belongings
When he died, Dr Wilcock had no apparent source of income, yet had £13,000 stuffed in his pyjamas plus £60,000 stashed at his Westminster flat. ‘Was he a spy? We just don’t know,’ said Mr Maudsley.
‘But I’m convinced he did own the egg. I last spoke to him in 2009 and he said he wanted to come back to Preston to right a wrong, and to give us something from a safety deposit box in Preston.’
Kieran McCarthy, of Wartski, said he would need to see solid evidence of the egg.
- Do you have any information about the egg? Email sam.greenhill@dailymail.co.uk or call 020 7938 6372