A recent discovery made in Deutschkatharinenberg, a German town near the Czech border, may come as a fantastic surprise. Or a not-so-surprising disappointment.

Christian Hanisch and Hans-Peter Haustein, leaders of a treasure-hunting expedition, may very well have uncovered the hiding spot of the eighth wonder of the world. Haustein is over 90 percent sure to have found the Amber Room, an inestimably valuable Russian possession that was stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

The chamber, whose three walls and ceiling were covered in tiled amber panels backed by gold leaf, was originally housed in the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, south of St. Petersburg. The Amber Room was originally a gift from the King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia to Russian Tsar Peter The Great in 1717, representing an unbreakable alliance between the two nations. In September 1941, a group of Nazi soldiers dismantled the panels and transported them back to Germany by truck. The Amber Room was reassembled in a castle museum in Königsberg, the Nazi capital of East Prussia at the time, where it mysteriously disappeared in January 1945. It was never seen again, apart from a single amber panel found in the black market of Bremen in 1997. Rumors and speculations suggest that the treasure escaped the bombing of Königsberg intact, but have alas failed to reveal its final destination. The chase for the Amber Room has been a life-absorbing passion and hobby for treasure hunters. It remains one of the most wanted items of lost art worldwide.

Although many search missions have been underway since the end of WWII, none have unveiled the whereabouts of the notorious chamber. Haustein himself has been on the quest to find the Amber Room for over 12 years. More than 500 possible hiding spots for the chamber have been listed, but none have revealed a successful discovery. The probability of finding the correct hideout is unbelievably low, so don’t get your hopes up.

The excavation site said to contain the famous amber panels lies 60 feet below ground and was chosen based on a set of coordinates written in a notebook belonging to Hanisch’s father. According to a written note, the coordinates corresponded to the hiding spot of 12-kilo bars of gold hidden by the Nazis. Hopefully the Amber Room lies somewhere in the cavern. Why would it be there? Because the cave should contain approximately two tons of gold, according to electromagnetic pulse measurements.

It may take another month to uncover the contents of the site because the spot needs to be secured (rid of booby traps and explosives) before it can be fully explored.

If it were found, the Amber Room would certainly be returned to Russia. But the original chamber in the Catherine Palace has been filled with a reconstructed replica, so who knows where it would end up? This question would again give rise to a whole range of controversy, complaints, and more anxiety over this already stressful mystery. Nevertheless, finding an answer to the fabled lost treasure would merit a deep sigh of relief.

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