Don't drop that egg, it's worth £9million

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Christie's will hold auctions of art, books, icons and silver estimated to be worth up to £38 million.

A growing band of Russian collectors is expected to pack the sale rooms but the highlight of the sale will attract worldwide attention.

It is a Fabergé egg, named after the Rothschild banking family for whom it was made and one of only 12 produced for anyone outside the Russian royal family. It is expected to fetch up to £9 million.

Jussi Pylkk‰nen, president of Christie's Europe, said: "It is one of those unique works of art that transcends a particular market. It will be interesting to see whether the buyer is from the Commonwealth of Independent States [former Soviet republics] or will be an American, Swiss or someone from the Middle East."

He said one of the effects of more Russians buying examples of their heritage was that other collectors had become interested in native artists such as Natalia Goncharova and Kazimir Malevich.

"There's now huge interest from non-Russian collectors who see the Rus-sian avant garde as being a vital part of a good 20th-century picture collection," said Mr Pylkkänen.

"The prices for these artists have risen very steeply in the last three years. The Russian buyers are now having to compete on an international basis and many more significant works are appearing on the market because it is so strong.

"There's absolutely fantastic work on sale next week and we will see countless records broken."

The Russians contribute to particularly fierce bidding at auction. At a previous Christie's sale, the bidding for one work opened at £500,000 only for one Russian to offer £1million and declare, "I will buy this" - to which another responded, "No, it will be mine."

"The two of them literally threw numbers at each other," said Mr Pylkkänen.

Christie's recently showed the Rothschild Fabergé Egg and other items due to be auctioned in public in Moscow for the first time.

The exhibition at the Russian State Library, Pashkov House, attracted 2,000 visitors. "There was a phenomenal response," said Mr Pylkkänen.