The Amber Room will be officially opened on May 31 as part of 300 year jubilee celebrations. Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schrouder will attend the ceremony.

The Amber Room was originally designed by Schluter, Prussian court architect.The room was presented to the Emperor Peter the Great as a diplomatic present. During the World War II, due to the fragility of the amber panels, it was decided not to evacuate them. However, the panels were demounted by one of the special regiment of the North Wehrmacht group of armies and sent to Konigsberg. When the German troops were retreating, the panels were taken out of Konigsberg no later than on April 6, 1945, and from then on scientists failed to trace their fate.

The works on recreating the Amber room started in 1979 and during 20 years were financed by the federal budget. Ruhrgas AG, German trust allocates money on the restoration works starting from 1999, and has already allocated 3.5 million dollars. On the whole the recreation of the eighth wonder of the world costs 8 million dollars.

In February, 2002, Sense of Smell and of Touch, Florentine mosaic (mosaic, made of semi-precious stones – jasper, lapis lazuli, opals) was mounted on the recreated walls of the Amber Room. Besides, the specialists from the Tsarskoe Selo amber workshops have recreated two amber frames for the East wall of the room, where two more Florentine mosaics: “Sense of Hearing” and “Sense of Taste” are placed.

The panels, presented to Peter the Great, were mounted on the walls of Ekaterininsky Palace in Tsarskoe Selo only during the reign of his daughter, who entrusted her favorite architect Francesco Rastrelli with the challenging task. The masterpiece was completed

News source: www.ipc-spb.ru
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