NEW ORLEANS, LA.- A new chapter in the New Orleans Museum of Art’s tradition of exhibiting the finest jeweled objects from Imperial Russia commenced with the opening of a new permanent gallery on the second-floor mezzanine, Peter Carl Fabergé and Other Russian Masters. The installation features scores of works never before seen by local audiences, including 33 miniature Easter Eggs by Fabergé, as well as six larger eggs created by the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory for Tsars Nicholas I, Alexander III and Nicholas II.

In all, Peter Carl Fabergé and Other Russian Masters features 58 works by Fabergé, including cigarette cases, photograph frames, hardstone animals, table boxes and a rare silver and enamel icon. Objects by such major Fabergé competitors as the firms of Ovchinnikov and Khlebnikov also are on display, including a gem-set silver and enamel Easter Egg by Ovchinnikov.

This new exhibition features an entirely separate group of objects from the 108 works currently featured in OBJECTS OF DESIRE: Fabergé from the Hodges Family Collection, a major NOMA-organized exhibition now on view on the Museum’s first floor.

The 33 miniature Easter Eggs by Fabergé, reminiscent of the Imperial eggs long associated with the Museum, are prominently featured. Eighteen of these miniature Easter Eggs are presented on an antique Russian gold necklace, while others are on period gold bracelets. A miniature gold tree has 13 of these pendant Easter Eggs displayed as fruit.

The six Easter Eggs by the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory were designed as presents to prominent member of the courts on the all-important Easter holiday. A rare Imperial porcelain plaque with an equestrian portrait of the Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of the last Tsar, is also part of this new display.

The work of the Imperial Handstone Shops is represented by four rare objects, including a dancing bear in gem rock crystal, a smoky Topaz handseal and another of silvermounted heliotrope and sardonyx, and a circular nephrite and gold table box set with carved obsidian, red jasper and topaz.

This new installation includes a number of pieces from the former imperial collections, such as a gilt-bronze-mounted malachite mantel clock from the collection of Tsarina Maria Alexandrova (1818-1888) and a Fabergé silver, enamel, and ivory photograph frame originally belonging to Tsar Nicholas II and containing the original photograph of his mother, Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, and his youngest sister, the Grand Duchess Olga.

Objects of Desire: Fabergé from the Hodges Family Collection remains on view through January 18 before embarking on a national tour. Peter Carl Fabergé and Other Russian Masters is a permanent installation and will remain on long-term view.