The Amber Room: The Golden Chamber That Vanished in the Smoke of War
It was called the Eighth Wonder of the World, and for two centuries it glowed in a palace outside the old Russian capital: an entire room whose walls were sheathed in amber — tons of the fossilized resin of ancient forests, carved and fitted into shimmering panels of honey, gold, and fire, set with gilding, mirrors, and precious stones. When candles were lit within it, visitors said the chamber seemed to burn from inside, a cavern of frozen sunlight. And then, in the chaos of the Second World War, the Amber Room disappeared. It was crated up, carried off, displayed one last time in a distant city, and lost. To this day no one knows what became of it. It is perhaps the most valuable single work of art ever to vanish from the face of the earth, and its fate remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the modern age. A Gift Between Kings The Amber Room was born in Prussia at the dawn of the eighteenth century, crafted by master artisans for a Prussian king. Amber, the "gold of ...