The Lost Amber Room
A whole room made of amber was taken apart, packed into crates in wartime Germany, and vanished.
What was reported
The Amber Room was a chamber panelled in carved amber, gold leaf and mirrors, made in Prussia in the early 1700s and given to Peter the Great of Russia in 1716. It was later installed in the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg, and called the eighth wonder of the world.
German troops took it apart in 1941 and moved it to Königsberg, where it was shown in the castle museum. In 1945, as the war ended, it was packed into crates, and it hasn't been seen since.
Explanations offered
It may have been destroyed when Königsberg was bombed and fought over, or hidden and lost; theories point to bunkers, mines and shipwrecks, and searches continue. A full reconstruction, made by Russian craftsmen over more than twenty years, opened in the Catherine Palace in 2003.
- When
- Last seen in 1945
- Where
- Kaliningrad, Russia (then Königsberg, Germany)
- Witnesses
- Museum staff in Königsberg
- Status
- Never solved
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