Fabergé's Eggcelent Easter Hunt

Tom Parker Bowles stands among the fiberglass eggs that will be painted and hidden throughout London.

Fabergé is taking over London, turning the center of the city into a hiding place for 200 massive, elaborately decorated Easter eggs. The eggs will be strategically placed throughout the capital and entrants will have the 40 days and nights of Lent—starting on Shrove Tuesday, February 12, 2012—to hunt down as many eggs as possible.

The promotion is naturally called “The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt.” The luxury brand is using the event to raise up to £2 million ($3.1 million) for Action for Children, a leading children’s charity, and Elephant Family, the UK’s biggest funder for the endangered Asian elephant (£1 million for each charity).

The two-and-a-half foot fiberglass eggs will be exclusively adorned and decorated by some of the world’s leading artists, architects, jewelers and designers including the Chapman Brothers, Vivienne Westwood, Giles Deacon, Zandra Rhodes,Diane Von Furstenberg, Sophie Dahl, Rob Ryan, William Curley, Bompas and Parr and Polly Morgan. The eggs, which are destined to become highly collectible works of art, will be available to buy once the hunt is over at three specially arranged auctions, with proceeds from the sales going to Action for Children and Elephant Family. The jewel in the crown of this auction will be an exclusively designed jeweled egg pendant by Fabergé, in collaboration with Nicky Haslam. All proceeds from the sales will go toward the two charities.

In addition, the event is an attempt to set the Guinness World Record for the biggest Easter egg hunt. It also serves as a promotion for the newly opened Fabergé boutique, the first time in a nearly a century that the brand had a store in London.

The event was launched in November at The Goring luxury hotel dining room, with a culinary creation commissioned by Fabergé, billed as the world’s most “eggsclusive” breakfast— smoked salmon, scrambled Burford Brown eggs, quail’s egg, lobster, and caviar. The dish will be added to the menu at The Goring Hotel throughout the duration of The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt. Below is a video of event, hosted by British food writer and broadcaster, Tom Parker Bowles, and with commentary from charity representatives, participating artists and Fabergé officials.