A colour autochrome of the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace taken before the Second World War 

Russian craftsmen in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad are to recreate parts of the legendary Amber Room, a Tsarist-era antiquity which was looted by German forces at the end of World War II.

The restoration plan by the regional government of Kaliningrad, the Russian Baltic exclave with the world's largest known amber deposits, is part of a campaign to stop illegal mining in amber-rich areas near the Baltic coast.

Experts estimate that 60-100 tons of amber is mined illegally every year in the Kaliningrad Region, which is believed to hold more than 90 percent of the world's total known amber reserves and is home to the world’s only strip-mined natural amber deposit.

King Frederick I invited German craftsmen to decorate the main hall of his palace with amber panels shortly after his accession to the Prussian throne in 1701. But after the king’s death in 1713, his son Frederick Wilhelm I put an end to the expensive work, and put the amber panels on the walls of a small room of the Large Royal Palace in Berlin.

Three years later, he gave the panels as a present to Russia's Tsar Peter I, who stored them in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. It was only in 1743 that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna decided to use the amber panels to decorate one of her main chambers in the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo.

The original decorations were enlarged and were eventually turned into the legendary Amber Room, often referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world."

The decorations were looted during World War II by Nazi German forces, and taken to Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad) where they were lost in the fierce fighting and air raids there at the end of the war in 1945. Only two small parts of the room's decoration were eventually rediscovered and returned to Russia.

According to the region’s Culture Minister Svetlana Kondratyeva, the recreated room will be installed in the 1899 building of the Konigsberg State Amber Factory following its renovation, which will then be transferred to the city’s Museum of Amber.

Museum visitors will be able to watch the craftsmen at work replicating the room through a glass pane.

© RIA Novosti (Edited by Paul Gilbert @ Royal Russia). 15 May, 2013

The governor of Germany’s Nobitz municipality Hendrik Labe announced plans to search for the legendary Amber Room, looted by Nazi Germany during the World War II, in a local forest, the Bild newspaper said on Tuesday.

Labe said the search would be conducted on the border between the eastern German states of Thuringia and Saxony. Digging is due to begin this spring.

He sited research by amateur historian Thomas Kuschel, who collected wintesses' statements about the last days of the war. He also conducted a geoelectric sounding of the area, which revealed cavities measuring 70 by 40 meters deep in the ground.

“I’m sure we will eventually find something here,” Bild quoted Kuschel as saying.

Labe is not the first German official to announce a search for the legendary treasure, housed at the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg and looted during WWII by Nazi Germany. It was brought to Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) and its further whereabouts were lost in the chaos at the end of the war in 1945.

The Amber Room is also being searched for by Heinz-Peter Haustein, the mayor of Deutschneudorf in Saxony. The search is being conducted in an abandoned copper mine in the Ore mountains, where a radar screening revealed a large amount of metal, believed to be too dense for copper.

Haustein said that the search in Nobitz is unlikely to yield any result. He added that the treasure hunting in the Ore mountains will resume after Easter.

The Amber Room is the 18th century chamber of amber panels, which was given by Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I to Russia's Peter the Great as a gift in 1716.

The six-ton treasure, dubbed the "eighth wonder of the world," is decorated with pure amber panels, mirrors and precious stones.

Only two small elements of the room's decoration were eventually rediscovered and returned to Russia.

A partial replica of the Amber Room has been recreated according to available blueprints at Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg.

© RIA Novosti. 13 April, 2012

A German historian has made some remarkable discoveries about the missing "Amber Room” – an art collection dubbed the eighth wonder of the world.

­Studying declassified intelligence files, Mario Morgner found out that East Germany was devoting huge amount of time, energy and money trying to locate St. Petersburg's missing "Amber Room."

The Amber Room, once located outside St. Petersburg, was designed by German Baroque sculptor Andreas Schlueter in 17th century as a present for Russian tsar Peter the Great from King Friedrich Wilhelm I. The room was lavishly decorated with amber panels, golden ornaments, mosaics, and gems.

During World War II, it was dismantled and shipped by German troops to Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad. The room was put on display in the royal palace, but soon it was damaged by a fire and subsequently disappeared.

There have been many rumors and theories about where the Amber room went. In his new book “Geheimsache Bernsteinzimmer” (“Secret File Amber Room”), Morgner reveals previously unknown data on an East German intelligence operation called “Pushkin” that lasted for decades.

According to Morgner’s findings, the intelligence spent millions of marks to find the treasure. They thoroughly searched the mountains of East Prussia, where they thought they might find the remains of the room.

“There were about 120 locations that were opened up – old mines, depots, etc., mainly in the Ore Mountains,” Morgner told BusinessWeek. “But nothing much was found except for old rubber boots and rusting weapons. No trace of the Amber Room.”

Still, Morger insists that the room still exists.

“It would probably be a huge 3-D puzzle, interesting for art historians to look at to see the craftsmanship, but probably impossible to put back together again,” Morgner said. “The amber itself is indestructible. It can burn and it darkens with time, but it doesn’t decay.”

© Russia Today. 30 March, 2012