Note: Presenting via Zoom as part of the Smithsonian Associates program.

For decades the Amber Room has been the subject of fantasy and speculation—dazzling, invaluable, and considered the “eighth wonder of the world.” Originally constructed for the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin during the early18th century and gifted to Peter the Great by the king of Prussia, the decorative ensemble of amber, semi-precious stones, and gold embellishment came to represent the extraordinary wealth and prestige of the Russian imperial family. Witness to Russia’s great age of empire, looted by the Nazis, destroyed or perhaps still hidden somewhere deep underground, and reconstructed by the contemporary Russian state, in over three centuries the Amber Room has transformed from a material emblem of global power to a phantasm of renewed imperial ambitions. What is the history of this famous decorative interior? How was it made, and what is the significance of all that amber? And why does the Amber Room continue to capture the public’s imagination nearly a century after its disappearance?

Molly Brunson, associate professor of art history at Yale University, delves into the history of this unique, lavish—and missing—room.