Royal treasures

You could spend a lifetime examining the treasures housed in the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg. Which is fair enough considering the palaces house the accumulated loot of several generations of Romanovs and a few more Bolsheviks. In the end, I spent a whirlwind three hours gawping at the priceless treasures here, from the Golden Peacock Clock to the Attic amphorae and the sumptuous collection of old Dutch masters before emerging to the affordable consolations of the souvenir shop. Elsewhere in the imperial city, I had seen replica Fabergé eggs on offer for as little as $25,000. But I stole away from the Hermitage with this ‘Fabergé-style’ glass egg in my bag and my wallet only a little lighter.