While there are many missing tiaras, necklaces, and rings, there is one missing piece of royal history that literally looms larger. The Amber Room from Catherine Palace went missing during the Second World War, and it has not been located to this day. 

The Amber Room was a large room in the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg that was hung with amber panels (complete with gold leaf and mirrors). 

King Frederik I of Prussia first commissioned the room in 1701 to be erected at Charlottenburg Palace. It was however installed in Berlin Palace (then the Royal Palace) until 1716 when Frederik’s son, King Frederik William I, gifted the room to Tsar Peter the Great. 

Peter’s daughter, Tsarina Elizabeth, had the room installed at Catherine Palace. It took over a decade to install and included over six tonnes of amber. 

During the Second World War, invading German forces quickly disassembled the Amber Room and installed it in Königsberg Castle where it went on display in 1941. 

In 1945, Hitler ordered that all looted items be moved from Königsberg Castle; the castle also suffered heavy fire-damage in 1944 and 1945. 

A 2004 report stated that the room was most likely destroyed during the bomb attacks, but there were several contemporary witnesses who said they saw the amber panels loaded onto a ship that was subsequently sunk. 

Although the mystery of the Amber Room remains a question, the Soviet Government began a reconstruction process in 1979.