Amber Room

Original 

The Amber Room was made from 1701 onwards in order to be installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first king of Prussia. The original Berlin design was reworked into the Amber Room in Russia in a joint effort of German and Russian craftsmen. After several other 18th century renovations, it covered more than 55 square metres and contained over 6 tonnes (13,000 lb) of amber. It took over ten years to construct.

 Reconstruction

The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep German forces from seizing it. However, the attempt to hide such a well-known piece of art failed. German soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts. On 14 October 1941, Rittmeister Graf Solms-Laubach commanded the evacuation of 27 crates to Königsberg in East Prussia, for storage and display in the town's castle. Orders given by Hitler given on 21 January and 24 January 1945 ordered the movement of looted possessions from Konigsberg. There are many differing theories about the fate of the Amber Room, which can be categorized into two basic types. One is that the room was destroyed in the war; the second is that the room survived the war but was hidden. Both theories can be divided further into two subtheories: that the room or its remnants remained in Konigsberg at the end of the war, or that they were moved to a new location outside Konigsberg near the end of the war. The lack of hard evidence and the numerous conflicting testimonies from public and secret sources has either supported or denied these theories. Many different persons and groups, including a number of different entities from the governments of the Soviet Union and East Germany, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, but without success.

Reconstruction

Starting in 1979, and lasting for 24 years, a new Amber Room reconstruction effort began at Tsarskoye Selo. Using original drawings and old black and white photographs, every attempt was made to duplicate the original Amber Room. This included the 350 shades of amber in the original panels and fixtures that adorned the room. Another major problem was the lack of skilled workers, since amber carving was considered a nearly lost art form. The financial difficulties that plagued the project from the start were solved with USD $3.5 million donated by the German company Ruhrgas AG. By 2003, the titanic work of the Russian craftsmen was mostly completed. The new room was dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 300-year anniversary of the city of Saint Petersburg. Many art and architecture historians are pleased with the new finished masterpiece. wikipedia