What happened to the Amber Room is one of history's greatest mysteries.
Sometimes dubbed the 'Eighth Wonder of the World',
its disappearance is a puzzle that has occupied the minds of treasure hunters for decades.
In this documentary we look at its history and modern attempts at discovery.
Find out what we have found and the competing theories
surrounding where the Amber Room might be today.
The Amber Room was an 18th century
Prussian work of art began in 1701, richly decorated in amber, gold leaf, gemstones and mirrors.
Known as 'gold of the north', the fossilized tree resin used to adorn the room
was of such magnificence that modern historians estimate it would, even 300 years ago,
have been worth the equivalent of 140 million dollars and perhaps as much as 500 million dollars.
The room was formally located in Charlottenburg Palace and later the Berlin City Palace,
until 1716 when it was gifted by the Prussian king Frederick William I to his then ally
Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire.
Who installed it firstly in the winter house of Saint Petersburg before being moved
to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin where it was enlarged.
It covered more than 55 sqm (590 sqft) feet and contained over 6 tons (13 thousand pounds) of amber.
In the past the Amber Room was used by Catherine the Great as a gathering chamber,
for trophy display by Alexander II and as a private chamber by Czarina Elizabeth.
Today we have a superb imitation Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo to entertain tourists,
itself costing as much as 11 million dollars to complete,
but nevertheless a reproduction and the original is lost to history.
Along with many treasures and works of art, the Amber Room was looted
during the occupation by the Germans in 1941.
It had been planned to move the panels to the east, but the amber was found to be too brittle.
Despite a rudimentary covering of wallpaper in an attempt at concealment,
it was discovered and removed from its walls in just two days.
It was brought to Königsberg Castle (modern Kaliningrad) for reconstruction and display.
In the chaos that preceded the advance of the Red Army in 1945,
plans to pack the room into crates for transport were disrupted when the civil administration fled the city.
After this the whereabouts of the Amber Room becomes a mystery.
Its disappearance is an enigma with no end of theories as to its final destination
or whether it has even survived.
If the room survived the carnage of assault by land
and air, you would think that there would think that there would be witnesses and clues to the movement
and location of what must have been dozens of crates of heavy valuables.
But there are few crumbs of information and much is supposition.
The likeliest explanation is that it was destroyed either by the RAF raids in 1944 on Königsberg and its
historic quarter or by the Soviet shelling and damage to the castle between the 9th and 11th of April 1945.
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This was the view reached by the Soviet investigators sent to recover the treasure in May 1945.
This theory seems to have weight because the remains of three out of four Florentine stone mosaics
that had formed part of the room's decoration were found amongst the castle debris.
But the question remains as to whether the Germans actually did manage to get the room
out of the city's ruins before the Red Army arrived.
Conspiracy theories abound as to whether substantially more of the Amber
Room survived the damage only to be secreted away and, if not moved,
perhaps still lying in a secret bunker under modern Kaliningrad built from the rubble of Königsberg.
It's reported that the KGB carried out investigations in the labyrinth of tunnels and cellars
under the rubble of the city only to find nothing.
The castle's thick walls still stood having survived attack.
In 1968 however under order of Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev the castle was demolished in its entirety.
So halting rigorous modern examination that may have benefited
from the use of technological methods not available decades ago.
Limited archaeological excavations of the castle cellar have taken place.
The center square of Kaliningrad now lies on the site of the castle.
Standing on the castle's filled in moat is the 'House of Soviets',
which was intended to be the central administration building.
Continuation of development was stopped in the 1980s as the massive building
gradually sank into the structurally unsound soil stemming from
the collapse of tunnels in the old castle subterranean levels.
One story that came to light followed a 1997 investigation by cultural heritage detectives in Germany
who discovered the fourth Florentine mosaic being touted for sale on the art market.
The panel was located to Bremen, but the seller, the son of a German soldier, had no idea of its origin.
This tells us that some pieces may have survived, even if it were small elements secreted away clandestinely by
individual soldiers returning to Germany from Russia in 1941.
Some believe the room may have been aboard the evacuation ship Wilhelm Gustloff,
which left Gdynia on 30th of January 1945 and was then promptly torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine,
but no signs of it have been discovered by divers amongst its wreck.
It's been claimed that the room could have been hidden in old salt mines on the Czech border
or silver mines elsewhere. If that theory has any validity there are many abandoned mines and tunnels
in the south of Poland once used by the German army that could have performed the same function.
Apparently, the notion that it could instead lie at the bottom of a lagoon in Lithuania, came to nothing.
Yet another more recent avenue of investigation has centered on the Prince's Cave
in the Ore mountains near Dresden. The idea that modern Germany might be hiding
the room has a degree of substance, because the Germans had planned
a museum of world culture for Linz, Austria.
Following a local tip-off and examination of local Stasi and KGB records a group of investigators
detected underground bunkers and tunnels using radar. The three amateur treasure
hunters believe this cave complex once used by German army scientists could hide the Amber Room.
The three sleuths believe they have uncovered evidence of an explosion to hide
the entrance to the tunnels. They also point to marks on trees that could indicate use of steel ropes
for hauling crates and suggested trains stopped at a rail line herein 1945.
The group was seeking funds for further research in 2017, but it seems their search was futile or
may have stalled due to lack of finance. If anyone knows if there has been any progress
on the research of these tunnels, please share down in the comments.
Closer to modern kaliningrad, the Mamerki bunkers in north east Poland
has recently been touted as a location for investigation.
Once a complex of reinforced bunkers and underground tunnels,
this was the command center for German forces on the eastern front.
Its location, about half an hour from Königsberg, and yet a geographically isolated and fortified location
may have made it a candidate as a hiding place - at least on a temporary basis for ongoing transit.
The museum administrators that now manage the complex's remains, believe that they may
have found an entrance hatch to a tunnel using radar that may be hiding a secret.
It's not clear that the hatch has been opened yet and there may be difficulties obtaining permits to do so.
There are however conflicting ideas concerning where the room could have been transported.
Wuppertal in western Germany has been suggested on the basis that the German Gauleiter
of East Prussia oversaw the room's transportation to the city. Yet it too was subject to heavy RAF raids,
being near to Germany's industrial Ruhr valley and close to advancing allied forces,
which could seem to detract from it having been considered a viable hiding place.
Again, no concrete outcome seems to have come from this theory.
It has been suggested that the extensive investigations carried out by the Soviets
were no more than a ruse, having already concluded that the Amber Room had been destroyed.
This theory holds that the KGB was happy for its disappearance to be believed
as it served as a useful propaganda tool to blame the West, rather than have the
responsibility pinned on themselves in the changing political landscape,
particularly as RAF raids had previously damaged the castle.
Supporters of this view may point to the final demolition of the castle remains in 1968,
which curtailed further research. This idea however is presumably no more than supposition.
The search for the Amber Room has been clouded by controversies
which may be no more than unfortunate coincidences or some darker force at play.
Firstly, it's told that Alfred Rhode, the director of Königsberg Castle museum
died of typhus just as the KGB was investigating the room.
Another story goes that a Russian intelligence officer known as General Gusev
met an untimely end in a car crash after talking to a journalist about the Amber Room in 1992.
Finally there is the grim tale of former German soldier, George Stein,
an Amber Room hunter, killed in a Bavarian forest in 1987.
Despite such a diverse range of hypotheses and several investigations that have led nowhere
the location of the amber room remains a mystery.
But if it's ever discovered, modern estimates suggest its value may be well over 500 million dollars.
That leaves two questions for you to answer in the comments.
Do you think that the amber room was destroyed?
Or, if you believe it still exists, where do you think it's hidden?