Suspected trace of Amber Room found in Kaliningrad

KALININGRAD, August 21 (Itar-Tass) -- A unique discovery that can lead
to a still greater a sensation has been made in Kaliningrad, the main city
of Russia's westernmost exclave region of the same name. Here, in one of
the rooms of Fort No. 5, on the outskirts of the city, museum workers have
found a piece of an amber panel that might have been part of the interior
decorations of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo (a summer residence
of Russian tsars), or of the famous Amber Room (also known as the Amber
Chamber) that mysteriously went missing in the last months of World War II.
The deputy director of the Regional History and Art Museum, Anatoly
Valuyev, has told Itar-Tass (Fort No. 5 is part of the museum), "the piece
of a pressed amber panel, quite possibly, was part of the palace's
internal decoration: either the lining of the hall, or of a mirror's
baguette frame."
"Whether the newly-found piece of the panel was related to the
interior of the Amber Room we, museum workers, do not know for certain, an
answer to this question can be given only by amber experts."
Valuyev said that the piece of the panel 20 centimeters long and 10
centimeters wide carrying an antique style ornament would be studied by
specialists at the Tsarskoe Selo Museum. It is clear at this point,
though, that the discovery had been in a fire. It bears unmistakable
traces of flames, but at the same time looks well-preserved.
"In any case, the discovery is important for museum professionals and
scientists. It is visible proof that cultural values were kept inside Fort
No. 5 for sometime," said Valuyev. Now a search team is being formed to
examine the fort's surface and underground facilities in greater detail.
The museum's deputy director recalled that according to archive data,
back in 1945 Soviet soldiers found fragments of amber decorations inside
the fort. The valuable findings were taken from the then Koenigsberg
either to Leningrad, or to Tsarskoye Selo. The soldiers were given a
reward.
"We can speculate that only parts and fragments of the interior that
were in good condition were collected and taken away. As for those damaged
by fires that were raging inside the fort during the assault by Soviet
troops in April 1945, they may have been left in place," Valuyev said.
"The Amber Room is a work of craftsman Gottfried Wolfram, made for
Prussian King Friedrich I. In 1711, his son, King Friedrich Wilhelm I gave
the room as a gift to Peter the Great, who liked it very much. "I have
just received an out of the ordinary present," he wrote to his wife
Catherine. The Amber Room was packed and with great caution delivered to
St. Petersburg in 1717.
In 1743, Empress Elizabeth asked craftsman Alexander Martelli to put
it in order under the supervision of chief architect Francesco Bartolomeo
Rastrelli. It was then that the Cabinet acquired its eventual look at the
Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. It substantially grew in size and
luxury. Sometimes it is called "the eighth wonder of the world."
During World War II the Nazis, robbed the Catherine Palace and took
the Amber Room away. From 1942 to the spring of 1944 it was on display at
the Royal Castle in Koenigsberg. In August 1944, a massive raid by the
British Air Force caused a fire, but it is believed that the panels were
not injured and the room was packed and hidden in the castle's dungeons.
After the assault by Soviet troops on Koenigsberg in April 1945, the
Amber Room disappeared without a trace. Its fate has been a mystery ever
since.