RUSSIA: MEDIA SEE THE LEGENDARY AMBER ROOM OF ST PETERBURG'S CATHERINE PALACE , RECREATED AFTER THE ORIGINAL DECORATION WAS LOOTED BY THE NAZI'S

Record ID: 647777

  • Title: RUSSIA: MEDIA SEE THE LEGENDARY AMBER ROOM OF ST PETERBURG'S CATHERINE PALACE , RECREATED AFTER THE ORIGINAL DECORATION WAS LOOTED BY THE NAZI'S
  • Date: 13th May 2003
  • Summary: (U6) ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (MAY 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF ST PETERSBURG STREET WITH GOLDEN MONUMENT AND TRAFFIC 0.10 2. CLOSE OF POSTER READING "300 YEARS" 0.14 3. SLV PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF THE STATUE TO THE EMPRESS CATHERINE THE GREAT 0.21 4. SLV WOMAN LOOKING AT ELECTRONI SCREEN WITH COUNTDOWN 0.25 5. CLOSE OF ELECTRONIC SCREEN WITH COUNTDOWN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE CELEBRATION, SHOWING DAYS, HOURS AND MINUTES 0.31 6. SLV PEOPLE WALKING IN THE STREET 0.43 (U6) CATHERINE'S PALACE, OUTSIDE ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (MAY 13, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. WIDE OF EXTERIORS OF THE CATHERINE PALACE (2 SHOTS) 0.50 8. SMV OFFICIALS ARRIVING FOR PRESS CONFERENCE 0.56 9. SMV MEDIA 0.59 10. VARIOUS OF SIGNING CEREMONY (2 SHOTS) 1.16 11. VARIOUS, RUSSIA'S CULTURE MINISTER MIKHAIL SHVYDKOI, CHAIRMAN OF THE AMBER ROOM ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND MEMBER OF RUHRGAS EXECUTIVE BOARD DR. ACHIM MIDDELSCHULTE AND DIRECTOR OF THE TSARSKOE SELO STATE MUSEUM STANDING AND SHAKING HANDS (2 SHOTS) 1.36 12. WIDE OF MEDIA AND OFFICIALS INSIDE RECREATED AMBER ROOM 1.44 13. VARIOUS OF THE AMBER ROOM AND ELABORATE DECORATION (2 SHOTS) 2.07 14. CLOSE OF AMBER ROOM DECORATION OF IMPERIAL CROWN 2.11 15. SMV WOMAN TAKING PICTURE OF THE ROOM 2.17 16. CLOSE OF AMBER DECORATION OF THE ROOM 2.21 17. SMV MAN FILMING THE AMBER ROOM 2.23 18. SMV OFFICIALS TALKING 2.28 19. CLOSE OF AMBER DECORATION OF CROWN AND FIGURES 2.31 20. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AMBER CRAFTSMAN DOBRYCHEV VLADIMIR SAYING: "To me this room means the greatest part of my life, I put into this work major part of my life, emotions and feelings of the young person who came here within his skills and capabilities. I grew up here and has become an artist craftsman." 2.51 21. PAN UP FROM ORNATE TABLE , CLOCK AND MIRROR AND AMBER DECORATED WALLS 2.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ST. PETERSBURG AND CATHERINE'S PALACE, OUTSIDE ST. PETERSBURG,
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA7NN0IQV1PQLQU77FZ9HX777LX
  • Story Text: Russia's legendary Amber Room, which has baffled
    historians and intrigued treasure hunters for decades, has
    been recreated and is ready to be unveiled.



    The Amber Room is to be officially opened on May 31
    by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor
    Gerhard Schroeder as a key event in the marking of the 300th
    anniversary of St. Petersburg.

    The original construction of the room from amber panels
    was commissioned by Frederick I of Prussia as he passed
    through Kaliningrad, then called Konigsberg, an amber-rich
    corner of his kingdom. The room was designed by Andreas
    Schlueter, the chief Prussian court architect to the court.

    His workmen spent ten years making the King a small amber
    parlour, where he liked to play noughts and crosses.

    But Frederick I of Prussia enjoyed the room for only two
    years before he died, passing it on to his son Frederick
    William. When Peter the Great passed through Berlin in 1716
    and expressed admiration for the room, Frederick William made
    him a present of it.

    The room was installed 30 years later in the Catherine
    Palace, where it was extended by placing mirrors between the
    amber panels, transforming an intimate parlour into a grand
    chamber of 100 sq m (1,076 sq ft) where Catherine the Great
    played cards.

    During World War II, Soviet authorities decided that the
    room's amber panels were too fragile to be removed and
    evacuated.

    They were, however, removed by German troops and carried
    off to Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad. Its whereabouts remain a
    mystery.

    The Amber Room was one of the Nazis' most valued war
    trophies and its loss is still a source of anger for Russians.

    In the 1990s President Yeltsin accused the Germans of
    withholding panels from Russia. In 1997 one of the panels was
    found in a private collection in Germany.

    The Berlin Government bought the panel and presented it to
    Russia two years later.

    After years of unsuccessful searches the Soviet leadership
    has decided to restore the room. But those charged with
    restoration faced an uneasy task: all that remained from the
    original room was a series of black-and-white photographs and
    one colour slide.

    It took 25 years and 6 tonnes of amber to recreate the
    lost treasure. One third of the money needed for the
    reconstruction has come from the German gas giant Ruhrgas.

    The Amber room is just one of 78 St. Petersburg's
    landmarks put under reconstruction since 2000, under the 300th
    anniversary restoration programme. Among others are the State
    Hermitage Museum, Russian Art Museum, Peter and Paul Fortress,
    Summer Garden, Admiralty, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Isaac's
    Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral and many others.


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