When a scrap metal dealer bought a golden ornament at a junk market, he had no idea he was now the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia.
The 8-cm egg was spirited out of St. Petersburg after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and then vanished for decades in the U.S.
An unidentified man in the U.S. spotted the egg while searching for scrap gold and purchased it for $14,000, hoping to make a fast buck by selling it to be melted down. But there were no takers because he had overestimated the value of the watch and gems tucked inside the egg.