Amber Room

History's most famous lost art room — amber, gold, and mirrors assembled in 1712, stolen in WWII, then painstakingly reconstructed over 25 years; now on display in the Catherine Palace.

The Amber Room is one of history's most celebrated lost treasures — and one of its most ambitious reconstructions. Created between 1701 and 1712 for the Prussian King Frederick I, master craftsmen lined the walls with over six tonnes of amber panels, gilded carvings, and mirrors. Frederick William I gifted it to Tsar Peter I in 1716; Empress Elizabeth later had it enlarged and installed in the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Selo. In 1941, German forces looted the room during their advance; its whereabouts have never been established. A painstaking reconstruction, completed in 2003 after 25 years of work, now occupies the same space in the Catherine Palace outside St. Petersburg — a dazzling testament to both 18th-century craftsmanship and modern restoration skills.