By Dina Kyriakidou
ATHENS, June 11 (Reuter) - ``Oh, Greece beloved, your sacred objects plundered by profane English,'' Byron lamented when the British diplomat Lord Elgin sent the Parthenon's marble sculptures to London nearly 200 years ago.
Byron's outrage may be music to Greece's ears as it launches a new crusade to retrieve the exquisite classical era sculptures from the British Museum but such passionate rhetoric has done little to sway the British government.
Shattering long-nurtured Greek hopes that a Labour government would be more sympathetic to the request, Heritage Secretary Chris Smith flatly turned down Greek demands just days after Tony Blair's May 1 election victory.
``It's something that we had a look at over the course of the last five years; we decided it was not a feasible or sensible option and we won't do it,'' Smith told the BBC.
Greece, refusing to take 'no' for an answer, is determined to renew its efforts to recover what are considered some of the finest examples of art from the Golden Age of Athens.
GREEK DETERMINATION
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos has vowed to write to the British government on the issue and approach Smith at the next European Union culture ministers' meeting on June 30.
``The most important monument of Western civilisation is mutilated. The Parthenon itself demands its Marbles back,'' he told Reuters.
The fifth century BC Doric temple on the Acropolis is seen as the crowning glory of classical Greece.
Gods and mortals in flowing robes and flying mantles, beasts and mythical monsters in battle or processions designed by antiquity's finest sculptor, Pheidias, adorned its exterior.
Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, then British envoy to the Ottoman court in Istanbul, stripped much of its surviving inner frieze and most of the pedimental sculptures and shipped them to England.
In 1816 he sold the sculptures, known in Britain as the ``Elgin Marbles,'' to the British Museum, where they took pride of place and became the object of a lengthy dispute between Greece and Britain.
Greece's late culture minister, the actress Melina Mercouri, lent her glamour to a campaign in the 1980s, winning a promise from then Labour leader Neil Kinnock that should his party return to power, the marbles would be returned home.
``We are practical enough and fair enough not to consider that a binding committment,'' said Mercouri's husband, American film director Jules Dassin, who has been continuing her campaign as president of the Melina Mercouri Foundation.
But the campaign will be intensified to convince the public that it is morally and aesthetically right for the Marbles to return to bask in the light they were created for, he said.
``We have learned that as soon as people really know the history and the facts they say 'Oh my God, they should go back'. It's a matter of education,'' he told Reuters.
ELGIN CONTROVERSY
At the centre of the moral argument is Elgin himself, seen by some as art lover and benefactor but by most Greeks as pilferer of a nation's heritage and destroyer of one of humanity's greatest achievements.
He admittedly stretched the powers of a permit secured at the Ottoman court, allowing him to collect inscriptions and slabs from the Acropolis, and his crews greatly damaged the temple in their rushed efforts to remove the Marbles.
``They were obviously in a hurry. Instead of removing things slowly and safely they hacked away and mutilated. They pushed three-tonne ledges from 15 metres (yards) high, shattering them and damaging the base of the temple,'' said Manolis Korres, the architect heading a major restoration project at the Acropolis.
Elgin's defenders say he saved the Marbles from the ravages of earthquakes, looting and, most recently, pollution.
Athens' notorious smog has damaged monuments and forced experts to move all remaining sculptures on the Acropolis indoors.
Greece admits the chances are very slim that Britain would even consider returning the marbles until a long-awaited Acropolis museum is built near the Parthenon to house them.
Construction of an Italian-designed museum, chosen after an international competition, is expected to start later this year, Venizelos said.
``We will obviously point out the absence of the marbles (in the new museum),'' he said. ``The void will be manifest.''
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Yonas Augustus is a Romany, or Gypsy, who survived a Nazi concentration camp.
His people, like the Jews, were targeted for annihilation by Hitler. As many as 250,000 to half a million Gypsies perished in the Nazi death camps of World War II, according to scholarly estimates reported by the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
"I made up my mind -- nobody will liberate me but myself," Augustus recalled.
Over the decades, the retired diesel engineer has mourned the millions of Gypsies and Jews killed in the camps, but in recent years, he's also had something else on his mind.
"Somebody had to finance Hitler, somebody had to finance Stalin to make this juggernaut, this hell on Earth," he reflected.
Augustus is about to become part of a class-action lawsuit which claims that Swiss banks knowingly accepted looted Gypsy gold, jewelry and other personal property from the Nazi regime.
The Gypsy people are joining a suit filed on behalf of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The pending suit, filed in October 1996, accuses the Swiss banks of denying funds to the heirs of depositors who died in the Holocaust.
This week, attorneys will file an "entry of appearance" as counsel in the suit. Thus far, they represent more than a dozen named "Gypsy" plaintiffs, and they believe several thousand more plaintiffs may join the class action.
"The Swiss banks, we believe, have never, ever, properly given a full accounting of where that money is, much less seeing it being returned to its rightful owners," said plaintiffs' attorney Sebastian Rainone.
Klaus Schuler, a German-born Gypsy, is also taking part in the class-action claim. His grandfather was killed in a concentration camp, and his grandmother survived Auschwitz.
"I've been robbed of my lineage," the young law student said. He has made a video of his grandmother talking about her wartime losses, including the theft of her jewelry.
Schuler said he joined the suit so he could fulfill a promise to her. "I'm going to make sure that people, as much as I possibly can, will know what happened."
Swiss bankers previously had asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed. A spokesman declined to comment on the addition of the Gypsy claims to the case.
Augustus knows the horrendous Holocaust stories of his people aren't as well documented as the stories of the Jewish people. He believes that joining their lawsuit is an important step.
"We Gypsies have to learn from them in every possible way, particularly the younger generation, learn how to help ourselves -- because nobody else will help us," Augustus said. "So help me God, nobody."

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09:23 p.m Jun 09, 1997 Eastern
By Charlotte Cooper

DUINO, Italy, June 10 (Reuter) - The Italian branch of one of Europe's most blue-blooded dynasties is selling off the family silver and turning its back on the cliff-top castle which it has called home for the past 400 years.
Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e Tasso, first cousin once removed of Britain's Prince Charles, has decided that his northern Italian Castello di Duino has got to go -- and with it all the precious heirlooms collected by his forefathers.
The prince, head of the Italian arm of the German house of Thurn und Taxis, is auctioning the contents of the 15th century castle at a public sale on June 11-16.
``Maintaining a place like this is quite difficult when you haven't got any farms around (to support it),'' he told Reuters on a sunny castle terrace overlooking the Adriatic sea.
``It's also not like England when you have the eldest son who takes over. Here you have all the sons and it has to be divided,'' said the prince, who has two sons and a daughter.
Duino, whose foundations stem from Roman times, is an ochre-walled castle with a red-tiled roof, abundant gardens and a dramatic view along the coasts of Italy and former Yugoslavia.
Perched on rocks above the waves, it lies between Venice to the west and the Italian port city of Trieste to the east and was Austrian up until the end of World War One when the region was handed over to Italy.
It survived wartime bombardment by the Italians and has a mediaeval ruin and a German bunker in its grounds.
The castle has played host to such personalities as American writer Mark Twain, the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and, more recently, Prince Charles himself.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
But maintaining the building in the 20th century has proved too much for the Torre e Tasso resources.
``I feel very sad. It's a difficult moment because it's a difficult decision and I'm the one who's taking that decision,'' said 44-year-old Prince Carlo Alessandro, standing on the terrace where Rilke wrote his poems called the Duino Elegies.
This is not the first auction by Thurn und Taxis aristocrats -- German Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis sold a sizeable number of heirlooms in the early 1990s to pay taxes.
The circumstances of the Italian branch do not appear to be straitened -- visitors' coffee comes on a silver tray carried by a manservant in uniform and white gloves.
But staff at Duino have been cut from 14 to six, with two gardeners tending the lawns instead of four or five previously.
Supporting farms around Duino were sold off earlier this century and since then the family has tried to get different revenue-raising projects off the ground, the Prince said.
One for a conference centre worked well ``but when you live in a place it's difficult to make it work 100 percent because you live there. The castle is not built in such a way that you can have a lot of people inside and live privately,'' he said.
SELLING THE FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
The local authority is in the process of buying the property while its contents, including a piano played by Liszt, 3,000 books and a gallery of paintings will go under the hammer.
The Prince would give no estimation of how much he hoped to raise but auctioneer Stephen Cristea, of Trieste-based Stadion which is managing the auction, estimated a total of two to three million pounds ($3.2-4.9 million).
All the 1,500 or so lots come from the castle. ``Not one spoon has come from somewhere else,'' the Prince said.
Among the most interesting items is a portrait of Mathias Hofer, a former captain of the castle, which is thought to be the work of 16th century painter Lambert Sustris and valued in the catalogue at 280 to 300 million lire ($164,000 to $176,000).
``It's been attributed to several leading painters and it's still something that needs to be resolved so that's of particular interest to people who know a lot about artistry and deal in Old Master paintings,'' Cristea said.
Another important offering is an 18th century Neapolitan suite of three sofas and 12 armchairs estimated at 180 to 240 million lire which the family used on a regular basis.
``What's nice is to use these things. If you just look at them, they lose any kind of interest. You have to live in a house otherwise it's a museum,'' the Prince said.
Other items at the auction, which is being managed jointly by French auction house Beaussant Lefevre and Stadion, include paintings by Italian artist Andrea Michieli called Vicentino and
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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MOSCOW (AP) The director of Moscow's best-known art museum said Monday that government subsidies allocated for the museum are less than half of what it needs, and even that has yet to be delivered.
The director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Valentin Rodionov, said the museum needs more than $20 million a year. But the government allocated only about $9 million for it last year, and less than $3 million has actually been delivered, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
The Russian government, faced with a dramatic shortfall of taxes and other revenues, has no funds to cover basic expenses such as government workers' wages and pensions.
Most museums are underfunded, and some museum workers have said the lack of money may harm valuable art works because museums cannot afford restoration or even the maintaining of proper temperature and humidity confitions.
The 141-year-old Tretyakov reopened to the public two years ago after a decade-long renovation. Critics praised it at the time as the first world-class museum facility in Russia because of its state-of-the-art equipment and vast collection of Russian art.
The 62 halls of the Tretyakov's main building and a nearby annex are packed with more than 100,000 works of art ranging from centuries-old icons and sculptures to 20th-century paintings.
(09 Jun 1997 12:44 EDT)

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CHICAGO (June 9) BUSINESS WIRE -June 9, 1997--For centuries there has been speculation about the origin of the Shroud of Turin. Many believe it to be the cloth that covered Christ in His tomb after His crucifixion.
Now a new book, "Judgement Day for the Turin Shroud," by well-known scientist Dr. Walter C. McCrone, details his proof that the Shroud is an impressive medieval painting.
McCrone was first asked by the Catholic Church in 1974 to submit a proposal for study of the Shroud of Turin. Using a forensic technique of taping the cloth, he obtained 32 samples from all areas of the Shroud. With more than 40,000 linen fibers on the tapes, McCrone identified two red pigments, red ochre and vermilion, with a tempera paint medium on all of the image fibers. By 1980, he proposed a date of 1355 for painting of the Shroud. This was confirmed in 1988 by three different laboratories with their carbon date of 1325 (+65 years).
In nearly 350 pages with 11 color plates and 68 figures, McCrone gives the details of the Shroud research since 1969. It covers all the elements of his work and the contrast with STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project), a group who had concluded the Shroud to be authentic, and details the reaction of the Catholic Church through his long correspondence with Father Peter M. Rinaldi of Turin. "Judgement Day for the Turin Shroud" was written to ensure that a full record of McCrone's work is available for all to evaluate.
McCrone is trained in chemistry, microanalysis, materials analysis, painting authentication, and chemical microscopy. To his credit he has 62 years of research, basic and applied, on problem solving with a microscope. He has written 350 scientific papers, 12 books and many other articles. McCrone has studied the authentication of more than 100 paintings attributed to famous artists as well as Persian burial silks, Mayan pottery, and maps and documents, including Columbus' letters to Queen Isabella and the Vinland Map. McCrone's laboratories today teach 1,000 students in 100 courses each year based on microscopy and ultramicroanalysis.
"Judgement Day for the Turin Shroud" can be purchased for $36 plus $3.50 shipping by check or credit card from Microscope Publications, 2820 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60616-3292 or call 312/842-7100. Or it may also be ordered by e-mail (wmccrone@mcri.org).
--30--DS/se
CONTACT: Helen Hecker, 360/694-2462
Fax, 360/696-3210
E-mail: 73743.2634@compuserve.com

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A growing number of private homes, churches and museums in Belgium are victimized by art thiefs. In 1996 17287 art objects were stolen which is a rise of 910 compared to 1995 and even 5400 compared to 1994. The owners of art pay far too little attention to prevention against theft and do not insure their possessions. Museums have a too low security level. Lack of staff and obsolete security techniques offer too little protection.
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MADRAS, India, June 8 (Reuter) - A fire in an 11th-century Hindu temple in southern India killed at least 50 people and injured more than 100, police and local media said on Sunday.
All India Radio said most of the victims were trampled when thousands of worshippers rushed to escape the flames.
It said there was only one exit and many devotees, including women and children, were prevented from leaving by barricades set up to control the crowd. Many were trampled to death while others were suffocated in the rush to the exit.
The blaze late on Saturday started when holy fire used for prayer set alight a thatched structure inside the famous Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur town, about 320 km (200 miles) southwest of Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
All India Radio said the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit.
``Most of them perished in the stampede caused by the panic-stricken people running helter-skelter,'' the state radio station said.
A senior police official in Madras said at least 50 people had died. The Press Trust of India (PTI) said at least 60 people, including 28 women and five children, were killed.
Police said 37 bodies had so far been removed from under the thatched structure that collapsed in flames.
``We expect some more bodies under the collapsed roof,'' the police official said, adding that the fire had been put out.
State director general of police K.K. Rajasekaran said the death toll was expected to rise but the precise number of dead was not likely to be known until Sunday morning.
Brihadeeswara, or ``Big Temple,'' was built in the 11th century by the Hindu king Rajaraja Chola. It has been classified as a world architectural monument by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, United News of India said.
The temple houses the biggest lingam, or symbol of a Hindu god's regenerative power, in India, and the temple tower is 216 feet (66 metres) high, the tallest in Asia, the news agency said.
PTI said rituals were underway in the temple ahead of the culmination of the Hindu ceremony Kumbabhishekam on Sunday. The ceremony was postponed until Monday, police said.
All India Radio noted that the accident was the latest in a series of fires at religious events, citing a blaze during a pilgrimage at Mecca in April in which 343 Moslem pilgrims died and a fire at a Hindu religious gathering in eastern India in February where 204 people died.
Nearly 425 people died in 1995 when a blaze ripped through a school prize-giving ceremony in the northern town of Dabwali in Haryana state near New Delhi.
The radio commentator said such events were often heavily illuminated which could lead to short circuits and fire.
It was not immediately known how much damage the temple sustained in the fire.
``Monuments of such grandeur should no doubt be protected more carefully from the ravages of such calamities,'' the All India Radio commentator said.
The fire knocked out electric power in the neighbourhood, slowing rescue operations, authorities said. Telephone lines between Madras and Thajavur were out of order, but the cause of the failure was unrelated to the fire, authorities said. ^REUTER@
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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Eight valuable oil paintings, made by painters from the 18th century, were stolen early Friday morning at the Leopoldina Gallery of the Wroclaw University.
The thieves cut the canvases free with a scalpel, which were all portraits of the University's professors and different sovereign figures from their respective times, and left the frames, despite their significant value behind.
Police are investigating how the perpetrators entered the building, which supposedly has state-of-the-art alarm systems and security guards.
Experts estimate that each piece taken was worth $16,000, and that in all $130,000 of paintings were taken.

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By Carrie Lee
HONG KONG (Reuter) - A Hong Kong university overturned an earlier ban and agreed Friday to allow its students to display on campus a sculpture symbolizing oppression, a student leader said.
The management of the University of Hong Kong made the decision on the ``Pillar of Shame'' monument after an hour-long meeting with students, their leader Patrick Wong told Reuters.
Thursday, students and democracy activists took the sculpture onto campus without the permission of the university, which had said its display would be dangerous to students in view of its weight and height.
The sculpture, a gray tower of twisted human bodies depicting oppression by Danish artist Jens Galschiot, is 26 feet tall and weighs two tons.
There had been speculation that the university had made its earlier decision to avoid upsetting Beijing, which might be offended by the ``fight for freedom'' monument.
China regains the British colony of 156 years July 1.
Wong said the university had now accepted the sculpture would pose no danger.
Vice-Chancellor Cheng Yiu-chung stressed that the university respected freedom of expression.
``We do honor and respect individual choice of various opinions and philosophies,'' he told reporters.
``We reiterate the freedom of expression of the University of Hong Kong by any members including staff and students, as long as we do abide by the university rules and regulations,'' he said.
The university had agreed to allow the sculpture to be shown on its premises for two weeks, which was the normal duration for similar on-campus exhibitions, Wong said.
But the student leader said the students would fight for a longer display period.
The sculpture was put on display in a Hong Kong park June 4 for a commemoration of the 1989 Beijing student democracy movement. But Civic authorities had refused to allow the sculpture to remain in public parks after this date.
Democrats have denounced their move as suppressing freedom of speech and expression.
^REUTER@ Reut11:29 06-06-97
(06 Jun 1997 11:27 EDT)

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FLORENCE, Italy (Reuter) - Vandals have attacked Florence's Neptune fountain, a jewel of the Italian Renaissance, for the second time this year, police said Friday.
They said the hoof of one of the four horses that guard the marble Fountain of Neptune, carved by Ammannati in 1576, was found in the basin of the fountain.
Investigators believe vandals smashed it off with a hammer.
The statue has regularly been targeted by vandals in recent years, and in January one of the horse's ears was snapped off.
In 1992, joyous supporters celebrated the victory of the Italian national team in soccer's World Cup by painting Neptune's shoulders blue.
The local council, which has its offices just yards from the fountain in the central Piazza della Signoria, installed eight remote control television cameras last year to try to deter would-be vandals.
However the cameras' field of vision has been blocked in recent months by scaffolding placed around a nearby building.
Reuters/Variety
Reut16:06 06-06-97
(06 Jun 1997 16:04 EDT)

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More about this theft:
Works by Picasso and Monet were taken in 1992 from the Brentwood home of a doctor. He had insured them shortly before the theft, allegedly for several times their worth.
By JEFF LEEDS, Times Staff Writer
Federal agents in Cleveland have recovered two paintings, one by Pablo Picasso and one by Claude Monet, reported stolen in 1992 from the Brentwood home of Steven G. Cooperman, a now-retired ophthalmologist.
Investigators found Picasso's 1932 "Nude Before a Mirror" and Monet's 1882 "Customs Officer's Cabin at Pourville" wrapped in cardboard in a rented storage locker in a Cleveland suburb Feb. 2, said Special Agent Robert L. Hawk.
"They were in great condition," Hawk said.
He declined to say who had rented the storage locker or to elaborate on the case, saying that a joint investigation by the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department was continuing. Authorities have not filed any charges in the case.
The theft first drew attention from Cleveland-area authorities in August 1996, when police in Rocky River, Ohio, responded to a domestic violence call and found a woman who said her companion, entertainment lawyer James J. Little, was in possession of paintings stolen from California.
Little had worked for a Santa Monica firm where he did legal work for Cooperman in the early 1990s, said his former employer, who asked not to be identified. Little, who has moved to Cleveland, could not be reached for comment.
Cooperman, a noted collector of Impressionist art, has said he was on vacation in New Jersey when someone burglarized his Brentwood home and stole the paintings in the summer of 1992. He has since moved to Connecticut and could not be reached for comment.
His lawyer, Richard Purtich, said: "I'm reasonably certain he hasn't been contacted by any authorities."
The theft was reported a few months after Cooperman insured the two paintings for $12.5 million, said Alan R. Jampol, an attorney who represented the two companies that issued the insurance policy. Police found that the Coopermans' burglar alarm had not been tripped, and that there were no signs of a break-in.
"You had a house full of artwork. The Monet was in an upper-floor bedroom. The Picasso was in a downstairs study," Jampol said. "I don't know whether they had an art appraiser do the theft, but somebody knew what he was coming for."
Jampol said the paintings were insured for three or four times their actual worth. The two insurance companies sued Cooperman for fraud and settled out of court, he said. As part of the settlement, the companies won title to the artworks, and are expected to take possession of them once law enforcement authorities are finished with them, he added.
"We are delighted they have been recovered," said Anna Kisluk, director of the International Foundation for Art Research's Art Loss Register, where the insurance companies had posted a $250,000 reward for the paintings. "They are certainly works by important and well-known masters. Any time a work is recovered, it gives hope to others."
Records show Cooperman, who ran the Cooperman Eye Center in Beverly Hills' "Golden Triangle" medical district, is no stranger to legal proceedings. In 1988, the state medical board accused him of unprofessional conduct, including performing unnecessary surgeries on the eyes of three patients in 1980, 1984 and 1987. As state authorities were threatening to revoke his license, he agreed to let it expire.
And in 1994, Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts won a judgment against him after alleging that he received $58,000 a month from 18 disability insurance policies from 15 different companies without having revealed his history of heart disease or the existence of the other policies.
Copyright Los Angeles Times

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By PATRICK QUINN
Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) Greece is being denied part of its birthright, the premier of Australia's largest state says in appealing to Britain to return the Elgin Marbles taken from the Parthenon almost 200 years ago.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr made the appeal in a June 2 letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In the letter, obtained by The Associated Press, he asks the newly elected Labor government to act with "enlightened boldness."
The 2,500-year-old sculptures have been housed in London's British Museum since the early 19th century, when Lord Elgin, then Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, removed them fro } : 42 7 9 0 7 1 427: (09: 42 777 0 :78 : 42 1 97 87 6 49 .. 4 2 0 92 ;4 22 6 5 77wn as the Elgin Marbles.
A series of Greek officials, including the late actress Melina Mercouri, have pressed for the return of the marbles. Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos has made their return his top priority.
Following Blair's election victory last month, the British government rejected a Greek appeal to return the marbles: 17 figures and part of a frieze more than 160 yards long.
Carr said it seemed "an uncharacteristically harsh and peremptory decision on the part of a government already distinguished for the enlightened boldness and generosity of its actions."
"Few people in the world are convinced that Lord Elgin obtained these objects legally. Few people believe that he acted with due care and goodwill in his handling of them," Carr wrote.
He described the marbles as "an integral part of their history and culture ... as part of their nation's birthright."
"May I suggest that the year 2000 AD would be an ideal date for such a magnanimous and civilized gesture on Britain's part," Carr wrote.
Australia has a large Greek-Australian population, making up nearly 1 million of the country's 18 million people.
(06 Jun 1997 15:14 EDT)

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More Amber Room, and Amber Room, continued

Lynn:
You are half right - "Schliemann's Treasure" was taken by the Soviet Army, but 180 degrees out on the "Amber Room"!
Peter the Great's Amber Room was taken by the Germans during, or at the end of the, siege of Leningrad in 1941-2, and was reported to have been seen dismantled in Germany in late 1943. However it was not found by any of the four allied powers at the end of the war in 1945, and has never been seen or heard of since.
My personal two pennies-worth (and having seen the size of the original room from which the Baltic amber panelling was removed) is that it is almost inconceivable that something of that size still exists - unless the remains are in some long-destroyed and lost underground mine. More likely it would have been dismantled and cut up: there was certainly a huge amount of high quality Baltic amber in the jewellery trade in the 1950s and 1960s, even though "primary" production and collecting was not on a particularly large scale.
The Troy collections of Schliemann (who was, incidentally fined 40,000 Turkish pounds for stealing the collection from the excavations) survived the war in temporary secure storage of the Berlin Museums, and were taken immediately to the USSR by the Red Army in May 1945. The collection remained under military-governmental control (though housed in an off-site storage building of the Pushkin Museum of Art in the Zagorsk Monastery complex about 50 miles from Moscow) for nearly 50 years. However, in 1993, the Russian Minister of Culture took legal control of the collection - and placed it formally in the care of the Pushkin Museum pending negotiations under a cultural restitution treaty between Russia and Germany. Two years ago the Puskin put Schliemann's "Treasure of Priam" and other items on exhibition.
Pres. Yeltsin has several times now proposed transferring such material back to Germany but each time the Duma (Parliament) has vetoed this, demanding that any returns can only be in exchange for the (to be honest) far greater amount of material taken by the Germans from the USSR and still missing - the missing Amber Room being the top of the Russian "wants" list.
Patrick Boylan
==================================
On Thu, 5 Jun 1997, Rio Grande Valley Museum wrote:

> Subject: Re: Amber Room, Schleimann's Treasure (gold from Troy) >

> Hi! Can anyone tell me what former Soviet/now Russian (I think) museum
> (or palace or .....) holds these two treasures. A friend is headed
> toward that part of the world and wants to see both. They were both
> taken by Soviet troops invading Berlin (?) at the end of WW II.
> Possession was only admitted in the last couple of years. Thanks.
> Linn
>

MORE ABOUT THE AMBER ROOM:

From: Neva-Hudson Company

The Amber room was a gift from German kaiser to Cathrine the Great. She was a German princess by birth. It was complete amber decor fo a room, including walls panels and furniture incrusatations. The room was located in the summer palace of Cathrine near St.petersburg. During the WWII nazis stole it from the palece, as everithing else and since then nobody knows where it is. There are many investigation going on until now, but the tresure was never found. Russians museums enthusiasts resoring the decor de novo. They have enough documents and amber, but the task is enormouse. There were near 20 different summer palaces around St. Petersburg, belonged to different tzars. All of them were destroyd completely during the WWII and restored more or less today.
Hermitage is a different museum, located in St. Petersburg itself.
Schleiman's treasures are from Troj and were in Germany, Dresden gallery I believe. After the WWII Soviets (Soviets and Russians is not always equivalent) took Dresden Gallery collections to USSR as war bounty, but in fifties they return the most of it to Germany. Although many collections were kept until recently under a big secret. Two years ago was a great exibit in Hermitage first time show of these collections. I am not sure where the Schleiman's treasures now. I had never saw it in Hermitage or in Moscow museums. Russians now consider to return the collections to Germany. However it is difficult moral problem: during the WWII Soviet Union lost 20 mln people -- it means that every family in country lost at least 1 or 2 immediate relative. And there are many people still have this wound unhealed. Besides the people, there were lost too many material thing, including thousands galleries and museums collections and architectural monuments. So many Russians, especially old generation, think that it is fear to have something from defeated enemy. I am Russian and not a museum expert, although my information is pretty accurate.
Apologize for the language mistakes.
Alla Baskakova

AGAIN: MORE ABOUT THE AMBER ROOM:

From: Axel Lapp
Organization: University of Manchester

The amber room is most likely lost. however, its disappearance has little to do with the 'siege of leningrad', as it was in the castle of kalinigrad, then koenigsberg, which until 1945 was a german city. during the war it had been packed in crates and had been stored in the cellars of the castle, from where it was to be removed once the soviet army was approaching. there are many conflicting accounts of what happened, several eye-witnesses saw the crates burn away in the courtyard of koenigsberg castle (with a slimy green mess coming out of them!), others saw them being driven away by the germans, and some saw the treck being captured by the soviet army. whatever the story is, there is not the slightest evidence of it having survived the end of the war.
however, there are still cohorts of people about who are searching, following similar evidence than the guy who waits for the monster of loch ness to appear.
german tv showed a documentary last year on the amber room, and reported on a group of restorers who are recreating the lost treasure (there is one set of colour photographs around and several b/w). over several years, they managed to create *one* panel, which looked very stunning on screen. this might be on view in kalinigrad, together with some kind of documentation.
regarding the theory about the amber room having been cut up and re-used for jewellery, i do doubt it. not every pebble on the baltic coast is amber, ok, but there is still plenty around - just pay a visit to poland (not all of them are fake). and as i have understood the construction of the amber room, it was made out of very thin layers of cut amber, which would not be very useful for jewellery anyway. apart from that, there would have been much more money in selling a relic from this 'wonder of the world'.
best wishes
axel lapp
department of art history and archaeology
university of manchester
axel.lapp@man.ac.uk

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