Amber Room

Crafted in the 18th century by talented German sculptor Andreas Schlüter and Danish amber artist Gottfried Wolfram. This priceless work of art was given as a gift to Russia in 1716.

The Amber Room is located at the Catherine Palace and it was once considered the pride of the Saint Petersburg area. The whole room was lavishly adorned with countless jewels, gilded and, of course, many amber panels, when it was hailed as the “8th wonder of the world”.

When the Germans attacked near the city of Saint Petersburg during World War II, the caretakers of Catherine’s Palace immediately figured out how to hide the amber treasure. They tried to divide the room into pieces, but the dried amber had crumbled in their hands; and they hid the amber panels behind a wall.

But the German soldiers found the place where the amber room was hidden, they chopped the pieces of amber, carefully packed it, and transported it to Knigsberg (then part of Germany, now part of Germany. to Russia). For a long time, the amber room was secretly set up inside the castle museum. Then an ironic fate happened.

Some researchers believe that the amber room was destroyed by a series of wartime bombs, but still others believe that it is still hidden somewhere. Despite claims that the Amber Room was found through the ruins found in 1997, much of the room is still missing.

In 2003, the construction of an amber room replicating the old one was started near Saint Petersburg, so visitors can come here to admire the golden age of a once glorious relic in history. .

Sappho’s Poems

Ancient sources indicate that the Greek poet Sappho once composed 9 books of poetry, but only 2 complete poetry books exist today with hundreds of lines of poetry on papyrus pieces and pieces of earthenware. Some papyrus pieces contain only a handful of verses, but it reveals Sappho’s passion for poetry, in a short line of poetry that translates as: “I am passionate/ And I desire”.

Sappho was very famous in ancient times because many of her poems are often mentioned in quotations. More poems by Sappho have been discovered. Around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a dig at a landfill in Oxyrhynchus (Egypt) unearthed priceless scraps of paper containing Sappho’s poetic meaning.

Or as recently as 2014, two pieces of papyrus containing Sappho’s lyrics were identified by an Oxford papyrus expert. Hopefully one day, someone will find Sappho’s poems to better understand the ancient world.

Florentine diamond

Legend has it that, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (a region of France) once wore on his finger a ring encrusted with a 132.27 carat yellow diamond as an amulet during the battle of Nancy in 1477. , a treasure that does not save its owner, the diamond disappears when its owner dies in battle. After a fierce battle, Charles’s mangled body was found but the diamond was gone. It is reported that a scavenger found the treasure but thought it was a lens and sold it for a number. 2 Franc money.

However, in the 1920s, art historian Nello Tarchiani, studying the records, determined that the Florentine diamond had no connection to the Duke Charles the Bold. Accordingly, this treasure originated in South India and it was stolen from India by the Portuguese in the 1500s.

Very quickly, the diamond traveled to Europe and fell into the hands of dozens of illustrious owners including Ferdinand de Medici, Duke of Tuscany in 1601. After possessing the jewel, the duke kept it. it went to his treasure in Florence and so the diamond got a new name: the Florentine diamond, it was sparkling, very magical, weighing in at 126 carats.

When Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the last ruler of the Medici family, died in 1743, the diamond did not stay in the family treasure but instead Francis Stephan of Lorraine (who later became Grand Duke of Tuscany and Holy Roman Emperor) bought it as a gift for his wife Empress Maria Teresa, herself a relative of the famous Habsburg family.

For a long time, the Florentine diamond became part of the crown in Vienna (Austria). When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed after World War I, it was believed that the precious diamond had strayed to Switzerland and became the property of the last Swiss king, Charles I. Now. Where is the Florentine diamond located?

There are many theories about its disappearance including that it was sold to Charles I and was cut into many small pellets used for a number of purposes. It is reported that it was stolen and traveled to South America. Up to now, the treasure is still silent.

Fabergé Egg Collection

Legend has it that the House of Fabergé was once the largest jeweler of the Russian Empire, where 500 designers and master craftsmen made everything from fireplace locks to fireplaces. to cigarette cases into exquisite works of art.

The jeweler’s extraordinary achievement is a series of precious jeweled Easter eggs, given as gifts to Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II, who used the precious eggs to make gifts for their wives and mothers.

Each egg is a marvel of engineering, from the Pan-Siberian railway egg (in which a ship is designed entirely from gold and platinum) to the Tree egg (an artifact identical to the tree and there are birds singing on the branches). After the Russian revolution overthrew the Romanov dynasty and the whole family of Nicholas II was executed.

Then, out of 50 Royal eggs (the same type of artifact eggs for tsars), 7 were lost. Information about the number of lost eggs is very rare. There are only a few close-up shots of one of these eggs, the Cherub Egg Carriage, preserved in a display case. Even the details that make up the Cherub Chariot egg make people surprised.

In 2012, a gentleman in the Midwest of the United States bought what he thought was a golden toy while surfing the Internet, which had a clock inside and bore the name “Vacheron Constantin”.

Continuing to follow the strange name, the gentleman fell back when he learned that he had just spent 14,000 USD to buy one of the Russian royal eggs with an actual value of up to 33 million USD!

Irish Crown

On July 6, 1907, the crown belonged to the property of the Knights of St. Patrick, also known as the “Royal Crown of Ireland”, flew without wings, the key to the treasure was lying beside the safe. The set of priceless treasures includes a diamond star and badges representing the order of the knights in 1830. Five sets of the Knights’ necklaces have also disappeared. Security seems lax.

There was a treasure room built inside the castle in 1903, but the treasures were too large to pass through the door, so they were kept in the library’s safe. An investigation was expedited, but a century later the case remained deadlocked. Rumors arose that the investigation had been shelved at the behest of King Edward VII in connection with a sex scandal at Dublin Castle.

One of the suspects is Francis Shackleton, the second in command at Dublin Castle and his brother is the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton; It is reported that Francis has “stealed” treasures to sell as a way to pay for his brother’s expedition.

Sword God Honjo Masamune

At the end of World War II, the Japanese people demanded that the government recover weapons that were once treasures of their country, including historical relics. Among those weapons is one of the most famous: the Kamakura period sword god Honjo Masamune.

This treasured sword was forged by master swordsman Masamune (who lived from 1260 to 1340 and is considered the most famous swordsmith in Japan), a sword known for its versatility and artistic beauty.

The ultimate owner of the treasure was Tokugawa Iemasa, who brought the sword god Honjo Masamune along with other swords to a Tokyo police station to make a return to the Allies. They exchanged the treasures with someone at the AFWESPAC International Liquidation Committee (Military Forces of the Western Pacific), and the treasure disappeared from there.

Some of the precious swords were then brought back to their home countries by American soldiers, while others were melted down or thrown into the sea. Today, the fate of the sword god Honjo Masamune is still very vague.