Jewel__A_Celebration_of_Earth_s_Treasures

RUSSIAN AMBER ROOM 313

T

he fate of the Amber Room is one

of the great mysteries of modern

times. This spectacular chamber

was originally commissioned by

King Friedrich I of Prussia in 1701. It

consisted of a series of richly carved amber

panels adorned with semi-precious stones

and Florentine mosaics, depicting the five

senses. A German sculptor, Andreas

Schlüter, and a Danish amber

specialist, Gottfried Wolfram,

collaborated on the work.

In 1716, the panels were

presented to the Russian

Tsar, Peter the Great, after he

admired them during a state

visit. He installed them in St Petersburg

where they remained until 1755, when

the Tsarina Elizabeth had the room

enlarged and redesigned so that it

would fit into her palace.

The Amber Room remained a prized

possession of the Russian state until

World War II, when looting German forces

dismantled it. The stolen panels were

packed into 27 crates and carried off to

Königsberg Castle on the Baltic coast. The

trail ends there. The panels may have been

destroyed by Allied bombing, or by a fire

in the castle – in either case, they had

disappeared by the end of the war. A

replica of the room was completed in

2003, in St Petersburg, Russia.

Treasure hunters have never given

up the search for the original

panels, and fanciful theories

abound. Some believe the

Nazis buried the loot in an

underground bunker; others claim

the remains of Hitler were interred

with the panels. Periodically, there

have been claims of its rediscovery. In

2015, Polish treasure hunters located

an armoured train believed to be packed

with Nazi booty, buried in tunnels near

Ksiaz Castle in Poland. The same year, a

German search team explored old copper

mines at Deutschneudorf, near the Czech

border. Neither find came to anything,

and the hunt goes on.

Russian Amber Room

△ Prussian coat of arms on the south wall

Crown-shaped detail

carved in amber

Rococo clock with a highly decorative

base mounted on an amber-inlaid

table, in the rebuilt Amber Room

The Amber Room has

enormous emotional

significance for both

Germany and Russia

Friedrich Spath, chairman of Ruhrgas,

corporate donors to the reconstruction project

Key dates

1701–2003

1700

1750

1800

1850

1950

2000

2015

1900

Friedrich I of Prussia

1701 King Friedrich I

of Prussia commissions

the Amber Room

1709 The completed

panels are installed

in Charlottenburg

Palace, Berlin

1716 The King of Prussia

presents the room to Peter

the Great of Russia to

cement their alliance

1979 German police

discover a mosaic that

may have come from

the Amber Room

1979 Work starts at the

Catherine Palace on a

faithful replica of the room

2003 The German

Chancellor Gerhard

Schröder and President

Putin of Russia jointly open

the new Amber Room

1944 Allied bombing

inflicts heavy damage on the

castle, perhaps destroying

the Amber Room

1755 Tsarina Elizabeth

enlarges the room and

has it transferred to the

Catherine Palace near

St Petersburg

1941 Nazi troops

invade Russia and

steal the panels,

spiriting them away

to Königsberg Castle

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