€24m Fabergé egg deal was struck in Kerry potato field

Negotiating the future of a near priceless work of art might leave some people walking on eggshells but the expert who found a home for a long-lost Fabergé masterpiece coolly conducted business in a potato field in Kerry.

Kieran McCarthy, a Fabergé specialist and director at fine art dealers Wartski in London, was on holidays in his native west Kerry when the delicate talks over the golden egg, made on commission for Tsar Alexander III of Russia, were concluded.

“It was a phone call I was glad to get — regardless of the holidays,” said Kieran. “I was walking through a field and the Atlantic was crashing in. There was a certain fitting drama to the location.”