By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch

In 1717, Prussian emperor Frederick I presented Peter the Great with a remarkable treasure: enough wall-sized panels covered with meticulously carved amber to decorate an entire room. Eventually installed in a palace near St. Petersburg, the Amber Room was stolen by the Nazis during the 1941 siege of Leningrad and hidden in Konigsberg, now Kaliningrad—after which little is known.

Scott-Clark and Levy recorded their investigation into the whereabouts of the Amber Room in an effort to both educate and fascinate the world. By searching through Romanov archives, Soviet files, and secret documents of the East German Police, the authors retrace the history and disappearance of one of the world’s major art pieces. During a time when amber was more valuable than gold, the Amber Room vanished into thin air.

While the first chapters seem heavy with material as the authors set up the history of the Amber Room, once the clues begin to fall into place, Scott-Clark and Levy fascinate readers as they trace the Amber Room all over Europe. They investigate not only rumors of the location of the pieces but also known facts. Interviews and archival documents help to further tell the story of one of the most famous lost artifacts of World War II.