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Date: | Fri, 6 Jun 1997 09:54:16 -0500 |
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The Amber room was a gift from German kaiser to Cathrine the Great. She
was a German princess by birth. It was complete amber decor fo a room,
including walls panels and furniture incrusatations. The room was
located in the summer palace of Cathrine near St.petersburg. During the
WWII nazis stole it from the palece, as everithing else and since then
nobody knows where it is. There are many investigation going on until
now, but the tresure was never found. Russians museums enthusiasts
resoring the decor de novo. They have enough documents and amber, but
the task is enormouse. There were near 20 different summer palaces
around St. Petersburg, belonged to different tzars. All of them were
destroyd completely during the WWII and restored more or less today.
Hermitage is a different museum, located in St. Petersburg itself.
Schleiman's treasures are from Troj and were in Germany, Dresden
gallery I believe. After the WWII Soviets (Soviets and Russians is not
always equivalent) took Dresden Gallery collections to USSR as war
bounty, but in fifties they return the most of it to Germany. Although
many collections were kept until recently under a big secret. Two years
ago was a great exibit in Hermitage first time show of these
collections. I am not sure where the Schleiman's treasures now. I had
never saw it in Hermitage or in Moscow museums.
Russians now consider to return the collections to Germany. However it
is difficult moral problem: during the WWII Soviet Union lost 20 mln
people -- it means that every family in country lost at least 1 or 2
immediate relative. And there are many people still have this wound
unhealed. Besides the people, there were lost too many material thing,
including thousands galleries and museums collections and architectural
monuments. So many Russians, especially old generation, think that it
is fear to have something from defeated enemy.
I am Russian and not a museum expert, although my information is pretty
accurate.
Apologize for the language mistakes.
Alla Baskakova
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