The Genius of Man

The Amber Roomhaving been reconstructed by photographs and
If you happen to visit Tsarskoje Selo, Russia,memory. Expert craftsmen spent more than 20
perhaps you would be lucky enough to see theyears painstakingly carving and rebuilding the
rebuilt Amber Room. The original Amber Room isbeautiful room that had been dubbed The Eighth
the subject of a great vanishing act. Given toWonder of the World. The Russian government
Peter the Great by the son of the King ofrelied on donations to help bankroll the enormous
Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm I, the Amber Roomcost of the room's reconstruction, including a
consisted of thousands of pieces of ambermassive donation by the German company
assembled into intricate mosaics and decoratedRhurgas.
with ornaments, figures and patterns.While the Amber Room has been rebuilt, the
In 1941, the Nazis disassembled the room andsearch for the original Amber Room is still ongoing.
took it to the German city of Königsberg,In 1983, a cabinet maker was restoring a chest
now known as Kaliningrad, Russia. In 1945, theand thought the chest looked like the same one in
Soviets captured Königsberg and packed thea familiar picture. He then saw a Russian inventory
Amber Room into 27 crates. The original roomnumber on the back and contacted the Tsarskoje
hasn't been seen since. The hunt continues for theSelo museum. The chest was listed in the registry
whereabouts of the Amber Room, or proof of itsof the Catherine's Ekaterininsky Palace in
destruction, but nothing has come to fruition.Tsarskoje Selo, the last home of The Amber
Opening in 2003, the Amber Room is alive again,Room before the war.