[Photo provided to China Daily]

VMFA has the largest public collection of Faberge items outside Russia. About 400 items housed in the museum are attributed to the master and his firm.

Shifman says that VMFA has an impressive collection of Faberge items thanks to Lillian Thomas Pratt, a private collector from Virginia who donated 200 objects to it in 1947. The items were mainly bought to the United States in the 1930s, when they frequently appeared in the market there following the Russian Revolution.

Explaining how the items to be exhibited in Beijing were chosen, Shifman says: "The selection was based on: What is the best, what is safe to transport and what tells the story of the Faberge firm."

The Faberge objects were the most popular items in their museum, he adds.

The Beijing event is part of a cooperation agreement between the Palace Museum and VMFA signed in 2011.