In August, Fabergé was sold to SMG Capital, a US investment company controlled by Mosunov. The deal was valued at more than $75 million.
A report by the Financial Times has revealed that Mosunov is willing to spend between $50 million and $100 million over the next five years to return the brand to its former glory.
“To do that, he is following Carl Fabergé’s original playbook, starting by targeting today’s royalty,” explains Conrad Quilty-Harper.
“He says he wants to ‘collaborate’ with tech tycoon Elon Musk on a space-themed egg and launch it on a SpaceX rocket, and he is working on an ‘Islamic soul’ egg for a royal client in the Gulf, which he hopes will end up in a museum. Run-of-the-mill British royals are also on his customer target list.”
Mosunov is also reportedly planning to acquire a significant part of Fabergé’s history, which is scheduled to go to auction in December.
The Winter Egg is studded with 1,660 diamonds and was a gift from Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, to his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. The piece is expected to return more than $40 million at auction in London on 2 December.
“Nonetheless, the background of the first Russian owner of Fabergé for decades is more complicated than one of a mere antiques collector. Mosunov bought Fabergé through SMG Capital, a US investment company; he is also a partner at venture capital firm The Garage Syndicate, whose holdings include fintechs Klarna and Revolut,” Quilty-Harper continues.
“Before that, Mosunov was the founder of R’AIN Group, an optics and laser technology company which his LinkedIn page says he founded in Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia, in 2005, when he would have been about 19.
“The company specialises in producing zinc compound crystals for infrared optics, missile guidance systems and aircraft sensors. At its peak, R’AIN claimed to be able to supply up to 90 per cent of the Russian defence industry’s needs. Mosunov sold his remaining stake in the company in 2014.”
Fabergé was founded in 1842 and is renowned for its Imperial Russian Easter eggs. The company was purchased by colour gemstone producer Gemfields in 2013 before being sold to SMG Capital earlier this year.
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