It went for $900,000 and the crowd exploded into applause as friends rushed to congratulate Shand in his moment of triumph. But his countenance brightened as the eggs went for higher and higher prices: Peter Beard, $21,000 Marc Quinn, $34,000 Tracey Emin, $56,000.

Shand, looking a bit haggard, stood a few feet away from the auctioneer, Jamie Niven. collectors and Shand’s New York friends, including his co-chairs philanthropists Agnes Gund and Sydie Lansing, Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta, Lee Radziwill, and Diane von Furstenberg (who had herself contributed an egg). Sotheby’s main auction room was packed with V.I.P. Now, on the evening of April 22, 2014, three dozen of these eggs were being auctioned at Sotheby’s to benefit Elephant Family, the nonprofit founded by Shand in 2002 to save Asian elephants and their habitats in India and 12 other countries. Nearly 300 artists, architects, photographers, and designers, including Julian Schnabel, Zaha Hadid, Ralph Lauren, and Carolina Herrera, had decorated three-foot-high fiberglass eggs provided by Fabergé, which were then placed throughout the five boroughs in the weeks preceding Easter. The wildly charismatic 62-year-old explorer, author, conservationist, semi-retired playboy, and adored younger brother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the wife of Prince Charles, had spent six months in New York putting together the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, a huge public-art and charity event.

Aristacrat midnight video