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Before he died in 1990, flamboyant publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes told his kids to find their own fun rather than carry on with the things he enjoyed. True to the old man's wishes, his five offspring have been selling off chunks of the Forbes art collection that took a lifetime to gather. The crown jewels went last week: nine rare Faberge eggs and sundry other works in a private sale to Russian oil and aluminum tycoon Viktor Vekselberg for more than $100 million.

The Forbes five — led by eldest son and former presidential candidate Steve and his brother Kip, who is vice chairman of the family's media empire, Forbes Inc.--have been unloading Dad's gems for years. In 1993 they sold $3 million worth of Orientalist paintings and drawings; in 1997, a toy-soldier collection for about $600,000; in 2002, some 60 Faberge objects for nearly $6 million. Other items have been sold as well, including the manuscript of Abraham Lincoln's last speech and a trove of other presidential documents, a 727 jet named Capitalist Tool and real estate in Fiji and Tangier, Morocco.

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Some have likened the liquidation to a fire sale, raising questions about the health of the Forbes fortune — the size of which has always been a closely guarded secret. When Malcolm Forbes died, his estate may have been worth up to $1 billion. No one figures the kids have burned through all that, even though Steve Forbes spent $76 million on presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2000 (which came out of his share of the family kitty). "Forbes remains a very strong franchise," says Steven Cohn, editor in chief of Media Industry Newsletter. "If they sold their estate in Colorado, I'd be more concerned." The Forbes family also has property in Normandy and London, many more paintings and historical documents, and the Highlander yacht.

Yet the recent advertising downturn clearly has taken its toll. Ad pages at Forbes magazine fell 49% between 2000 and last year. In an interview with TIME, Kip Forbes, the third eldest of the siblings (there are four brothers and a sister), dismissed speculation that the flagship might be listing. He conceded that revenue for Forbes Inc. was down in 2003 from the previous year but said there was "no connection" between the Faberge egg sale and the tough business climate that has depressed revenue at all business publications, from the Wall Street Journal to TIME's sister publication Fortune. Without elaborating, he said the sale was primarily for estate planning.

But Kip also said proceeds from the Faberge sale, which included some 180 other works, would be put back into Forbes Inc. He said the first priority is to keep the magazine and its offshoots strong. "That's the goose, and we want to keep it laying eggs," Kip said.

Which is a fitting way to put things. When Kip was in eighth grade, he wrote a paper on Faberge, years before the first egg came into the Forbes fold. The eggs are important historical markers for Russians. Czar Alexander III commissioned the Russian jeweler Peter Carl Faberge in 1885 to make an Easter present for his wife. His son Nicholas II continued the tradition for more than 30 years. After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks lost track of the eggs — there were probably 50--and when they reappeared in Western art markets (after being smuggled out of the country or sold off by the new regime), many ended up with industrialist Armand Hammer, among others.

Now the eggs are going home, bringing to 19 the number known to be in Russian hands. Eight are unaccounted for, and the rest reside in museums and private collections around the world. The purchaser, Vekselberg, who ranked No. 147 on Forbes magazine's list of the world's wealthiest people last year, has said he will put the eggs on public exhibition. Museums across Russia are vying to be chosen as the home for the collection.

The Forbes family does not seem overly sad to lose the eggs. "We all appreciated them," Kip said. "But they were part of [Dad's] collecting passion." The kids have their own. Steve is a Churchill fan; Kip collects Napoleon III memorabilia. But it all begins with purging Dad's vault. And keeping the media empire running.

• Daniel Kadlec