A Nazi looted treasure The Amber Room found?

Sorry not really sure where to post this, doesn't really seem to fit anywhere on the ATS forum but i thought it was a pretty cool discovery.

German treasure hunters claim to have discovered the Amber Room which was looted from Russia by the Nazi's during WW2. The Amber Room is regarded as one of the great lost treasures and was called by some, the 8th Wonder of the World.
Some valuations put the value of the Amber Room at between 250 - 500 million, but due to its fame it is probably almost priceless.
The spot where it is alleged to have been discovered they believe there is a labyrinth of hidden storerooms.

www.spiegel.de, the article is in English.

Treasure hunters in Germany claim they have found hidden gold in an underground cavern that they are almost certain contains the Amber Room treasure, believed by some to have been stashed away by the Nazis in a secret mission in the dying days of World War II.
The discovery of an estimated two tonnes of gold was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany's border with the Czech Republic.

And here s a link to the National Geographic video about the Amber Room. Well worth watching.

And wikipedia on the Amber Room

Shortly after the beginning of German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II (Operation Barbarossa), the curators responsible for removing the art treasures in Leningrad tried to disassemble and remove the Amber Room. Over the years the amber had dried out and become brittle, so that when they tried to remove it, the fragile amber started to crumble. The Amber Room was therefore hidden behind mundane wallpaper, in an attempt to keep Nazi forces from seizing it. However, this attempt to hide a well-known piece of art in such a manner failed.
As the palace, and its surrounding areas, had been hit by grenades, German soldiers disassembled the Amber Room within 36 hours under the supervision of two experts, in accordance with Hague Conventions. 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. On 13 November 1941, the newspaper Königsberger Allgemeine Zeitung reported about an exhibition of part of the Bernsteinzimmer in Königsberg Castle.

Related links:

www.amberroom.org

www.geo.uw.edu.pl

tarotcanada.tripod.com

mojo

I've heard of this before.

It's been a diligent 'on-going' basis since the First World War.

Many different individuals and groups, including a number of different entities from the government of the Soviet Union, have mounted extensive searches for it at various times since the war, with little result. At one point in 1998, two separate teams (one in Germany, the other in Lithuania) announced that they had located the Amber Room, the first in a silver mine, the second buried in a lagoon; neither produced the Amber Room.

Has this 'room' been destroyed completely?

So sayeth the Russians?:

Destruction theory
Recently, a pair of British investigative journalists conducted lengthy research on the fate of the Amber Room, including extensive archival research in Russia. In 2004, their book concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was burned out, shortly after Königsberg surrendered to occupying Soviet forces.

SOURCE

~Ducky~

Wow!

A hidden cache of Nazi gold!

We should have a "Lost Treasures" forum...

Cool find, Mojo!

reply to post by mojo4sale



But... I thought it had been found a few years ago?
(Or maybe it was during one of my numerous time slips. ; ))

Anyway, for those who don't know the magnitude of this discovery, let me tell you: it's HUGE!

It's not "Nazi gold" (not least because it never belonged to them). The "Amber room" is/was one of the greatest masterpieces of craftmanship and luxurious decor - a true legend.

Thanks for the alert.
(I may have thanked you in that parallel world, too, but I don't recall it. )




[edit on 19-2-2008 by Vanitas]

there will be a hollywood movie about this
in the future. Just wait and see !!!!

I wonder if the finders will be able to keep it or will some government seize the find?

Im not up on the history of the amber room but im sure the Germans stole it from someone so it must belong to someone besides the finders.

Originally posted by earth2
I wonder if the finders will be able to keep it or will some government seize the find?

There is no way anyone could keep any of its parts. It's a masterpiece that belongs firstly to humanity and secondly to Russia.

The so-called "Amber room" is actually paneling - made from amber, hence the name - that covered the walls of a room in the imperial palace.

wow that would be awesome if they finally found it. The question is do they return the gold to the Russians, keep it, give the money to holocaust survivors?

Originally posted by Totalstranger
wow that would be awesome if they finally found it. The question is do they return the gold to the Russians, keep it, give the money to holocaust survivors?

It's not gold: it's amber, that's why it's called the "Amber Room".

And you don't sell something like the "Amber Room". It goes straight back to the place for which it was originally made and whence it was looted.

Originally posted by Vanitas
It's not gold: it's amber, that's why it's called the "Amber Room".

I think each panel was backed by gold leaf. Also, the article mentioned 2 tonnes of gold being detected.

To the OP: flagged and starred. Thanks for the research and links. I had not heard of this before. Due to the brittleness of amber and it possibly being in dirt, I would have to say that it is probably destroyed.

[edit on 2-19-2008 by nyarlathotep]

yeah, I was referring to the gold in the gold leaf. I'm not sure what the value of amber is, thats if it isn't crumbled to pebbles by now. Besides they already built a new amber room in russia back in 2003. this find would have more to do with unlocking the mystery than actually being able to recontruct the room from its original pieces. When they tore it down it was basically destroyed anyway. I'd think only the gold would have value

As far as I know, most of the world's amber is many millions of years old and is not generally brittle. I doubt it would crumble away if there weren't any outside stimulus. If the Amber Room is indeed crated away in these abandoned tunnels it will surely be intact.
The article tells briefly of the artifact's history. Apparently it was built in Prussia and given by the King of Prussia to his then ally, Peter the Great. It was taken back by the Nazis during WWII. Indian givers.
If true, this would be a huge find, gold and all. Imagine living in the area on top of all that wealth and never knowing it?

nice article OP! I wolud hope that the amber room is still intact it wolud be an incredible find.

Originally posted by TheComte
As far as I know, most of the world's amber is many millions of years old and is not generally brittle. I doubt it would crumble away if there weren't any outside stimulus. If the Amber Room is indeed crated away in these abandoned tunnels it will surely be intact.
The article tells briefly of the artifact's history. Apparently it was built in Prussia and given by the King of Prussia to his then ally, Peter the Great. It was taken back by the Nazis during WWII. Indian givers.
If true, this would be a huge find, gold and all. Imagine living in the area on top of all that wealth and never knowing it?

okay. I was just going by the wors that it started to fall apart when they were going to move it to hide. If it's indeed intact then that would be sooo cool. dig fast! I wanna know!

Here is a link to a site containing some history and pics of the room.
It was a huge roomalmost completely decorated with amber. The craftmanship is said to be lost and such and work could probably not be reproduced today.

I am just curious as to whether or not the Germans paid out reparations to the old USSR for the gold seized from the amber Room during the Second World War. If so, would Russia now seek to get the gold back or let Germany keep it. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

The slide show of the 'Amber room' in your link must be to the current one that was built recently. Most of the pictures look 'current' rather than dated.

Its sad to think of all the incredible pieces of history that have been destroyed or ravaged by war and the like.

Definitely some good information here. I would like to think that where ever it is hidden will eventually be found. Even if the amber panels have survived or not. Just to close the mystery. The room looks very beautiful, I would really like to have a change to see it, but I doubt that will happen in this life time.

Here is a nice picture of the room.

www.telegraph.co.uk.../news/2008/02/20/wgold120.xml

and don't forget, people have been saying for decades that they have found it, we will have to wait and see if it's Gold or Silver what they might have found in that cavern.

And yes.. it belongs by right to the Russians.
Edit..Please copy and paste the whole URL for it to show properly.

[edit on 20/2/2008 by Lyrian]

The Amber Room would go to Russia with great fanfare. It would be a historic find and a great recovery. The gold would go to some UN committee which would pay off some debts after the graft and corruption within these organizations take their part.

I'm sure there are still treaties in place for WW2 reparations to damaged nations that Germany and it's losing allies have to still honor.