What Would You Like For Your 250th Anniversary?
We all love to receive gifts to celebrate our Birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. The Hermatige Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; marked the museum’s 250th anniversary and received a gift from Pres.Putin. It has become the center of a tax dispute between the British and Russian oligarchs. Why? Well, it just happens to be one of the world’s most expensive clocks.
Gold eggs and jewels that belonged to the Rothschild banking dynasty were bought by Russian billionaire businessman Alexander Ivanov at Christie’s London auction in 2007. The auction price of £ 8.9 million (the US $ 14 million) is the highest price paid for a Faberge Egg in history. A lot of money was spent on Russian art auctions. Now Britain is claiming that Ivanov owes VAT on eggs and other expensive items he bought domestically.
In January 2013, British customs inspectors raided a museum in Baden-Baden, Germany. The museum was established by Ivanov in 2009 to display his collection of Faberge items. “The first thing they asked me was, ‘Where are the Rothschild eggs?'” Museum operator Sergey Avtonoshkin recalled.
The egg is not there. According to Avtonoshkin, Ivanov has always kept it in Russia, but he has never included it in the collection of a German museum. Ivanov donated it to the Russian government in 2014 and then Putin presented it to the Winter Palace at a grand celebration in St. Petersburg.
Ivanov argued that he does not owe egg tax because expensive items purchased in the EU are usually not subject to VAT if they are exported outside the EU. Avtonoshkin said that he and Ivanov met with British customs officials earlier this year to explain the situation, and they believe the matter has been resolved. “They told us that the case was closed,” he said. “The raid was completely unexpected.”
Ivanov made a fortune with imported computer equipment. In 2010, he told Bloomberg that he had collected $2 billion worth of Faberge and other precious items. The most controversial is the Rothschild Egg, which was made in 1902 as an engagement gift from Baron Edward de Rothschild. It is made of gold and rose enamel, has a watch and a diamond-encrusted rooster that comes out and flaps its wings once an hour.
Ivanov said that he established a museum in Baden-Baden after bureaucratic obstacles prevented him from opening a museum in Moscow. The British Times stated that the authorities believed that Rothschild eggs were shipped to Germany and were therefore subject to British value-added tax. However, Avtonoshkin insisted that it has been kept in Ivanov’s private collection in Moscow and that it has only been temporarily exhibited outside of Russia.
Avtonoshkin said that in a raid earlier this month, more than 40 British customs officers searched the museum. They went through the documents and the computers but did not find any items which could confirm their suspicion.
Ivanov told the Moscow Times that the raid was politically motivated and aimed to undermine the plan to display Rothschild eggs in the Winter Palace. Britain’s persecution of Ivanov is unfair, Avtonoshkin said, “He is a patriot.”
Well, Happy 250th Anniversary then.
