subject: Thinking of Hunting Buried Treasure? Forget the Pirate's Gold - - They Were Pikers Compared to This Guy [print this page] Everyone has heard of buried treasure and every few years a story hits the headlines about some lucky -- or diligent -- soul who has found a hoard and sudden become a gazillionaire.
But if all you think of is "Pirates" when you hear "buried treasure", you all missing out on more than half of the story.
Forget the Pirates -- They Were Pikers Compare to This Guy
Czar Peter the Great of Russia misplaced an entire room worth -- hold on to your seat -- more than $142 million in today's dollars.
Actually it was the Nazis -- but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Prussia (which must have been a bit better financed in the day) gave Pete an entire 11-square-foot room made of intricately carved amber. Yes, that beautiful caramel-colored stuff from Jurassic Park and hanging from chains around the necks of trust-fund hippie girls at DMB concerts.
Unfortunately, it was discovered by the Nazis during World War 2, despite the Russians clever attempts to disguise it with -- wait for it -- wallpaper.
What happened next -- well, no one knows. Or if they do, they ain't talkin'. Rumors have it sunk to the bottom of the ocean, burned up in an Allied air raid or sitting intact in a private collection somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Only one piece of the room has ever turned up. In 1997 a man was arrested by German police trying to sell a mosaic. But it was unfortunately a dead-end toward finding the room. Seems his father, a German soldier, had swiped the piece as a souvenir when he was part of the escort of the room 60 years before. The soldier/escort/thief was long dead and the solitary piece was returned alone to Russia.
Thinking of Hunting Buried Treasure? Forget the Pirate's Gold - - They Were Pikers Compared to This Guy
