Uncovering The Mystery Of The Amber Room

Throughout the course of history there have been many treasures that have been lost and then found again. There have also been many treasures that have just been written off as being complete myths such as El Dorado.

One treasure that has still not been found is the Amber Room, which is also known as the Amber Chamber. The story behind the Amber Room is extremely interesting and people are still continuing to try and find it to this day.

So Tell Me What Is The Amber Room?

The Amber Room is considered to be one of Russia’s greatest art treasures. It is a set of wall panels that were made from the purest amber, gold leaf and lots of mirrors. Some people actually dubbed it as the “eighth wonder of the world” due to its outstanding beauty. When all the candles were lit in the room it was said to glow a fiery gold colour.

The Amber Room began being constructed in 1701 and was completed in 1709. It was formed by a collaboration between a German baroque sculptor called Andreas Schlüter and a craftsman by the name of Gottfried Wolfram. In the year 1716 Friedrich Wilhelm the then King of Prussia gave the Amber Room to Tsar Peter the Great who was the leader of the Russian empire. He gave Tsar Peter the Great the Amber Room as a gift to seal an alliance against Sweden. A few years later the Amber Room was expanded by craftsmen from both German and Russia. The finished panels were made from 5,440Kg of pure Amber and was a staggering 17 metres in length. The estimated value of the room is around £150 million, but many have said that does not reflect its true value as it is actually a priceless piece.

Cool, But Where Is The Mystery?

The mystery of the Amber Room comes when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941.

During their invasion they are said to have come across the Amber Room and to have ordered it to be dismantled. It was then packed into 27 different crates and taken to Königsberg Castle in East Prussia and put on display to the public.

The mystery gets bigger as in 1944 due to an intense air raid that destroyed the castle, the Amber Room was reported to be destroyed. Many art historians are pretty confident that the Amber Room was in the castle during this time, but they are not convinced that it was destroyed.

And The Mystery Gets Better…

 

In 1997 one of the mosaic pieces from the Amber Room turned up in Germany. It was in possession of the son of a Nazi officer that had helped take the crates containing the Amber Room to Königsberg castle. This re-opened talks about the whereabouts of the Amber Room.

Then in January of 2010 a treasure hunter called Serge Trifonov reported that he had found a Nazi bunker that was supposedly used during the air raid on Königsberg castle. There are no reports saying that he found anything as of yet.

So the mystery still goes on.

But if you are really interested in seeing what the Amber Room looked like then you can see a reconstruction of the room in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg.

This is a guest post by Daniel Roberts. Occasional guest blogger on online shopping and full time blogger on investing in precious metals.  Daniel currently represents Regal Assets the best source on the web to buy and sell silver coins online.