Treasure hunters say they have found Hitler's most valuable lost treasure
Authorities have greenlighted an expedition in a German cave complex to search for $255million worth of treasure from Russia's Amber room, which was looted by Nazis during World War II.
Authorities have greenlighted an expedition in a German cave complex to search for $255million worth of treasure from Russia's Amber room, which was looted by Nazis during World War II.
A trio of aging sleuths - homeopath Leonhard Blume, 73, scientist Günter Eckardt, 67, and georadar specialist Peter Lohr, 71 - are convinced the missing Amber Room of the Russian Tsars lies in the Prince's Cave in the Hartenstein hills near Dresden.
Third Reich scientists used the cave complex during the war - but all records of what went on there have mysteriously vanished from local archives.
Lohr used radar imaging to detect underground booby traps and what appear to be bunkers under the soil.
He scanned the hill in September after claiming that a 'reliable source' told him of the missing treasure's whereabouts in 2001.
'The hideout is underground is above the railway line, where in April 1945 a train from Königsberg was stopped,' he said. Königsberg, now Kaliningrad belonging to Russia, was formerly the capital of East Prussia where the Amber Room was once stored.
He also said he has evidence that treasure belonging to the last monarch of Imperial Germany - Kaiser Wilhelm II who went into exile in Holland in 1918 after his defeat in WW1 - is stored in the complex.
Eckardt said; 'We discovered on a tree traces where steel ropes were used to haul up crates. Georadar and dowsing measurements reveal a a system of secret tunnels beneath the cave system itself.'
Crafted entirely out of amber, gold and precious stones the Amber Room was a masterpiece of baroque art and widely regarded as the world's most important art treasure.
The loot is estimated to be worth at least $255million on the open market.
The Amber Room consists of panels containing six tonnes of amber resin, took ten years to complete and is valued at some £200million in today's money.
Peter the Great received the room as a gift from the King of Prussia in 1716 and brought it to his new capital, St Petersburg.
The 16-feet of jigsaw-puzzle style panels were constructed of more than 100,000 perfectly fitted pieces of amber.
In 1755, it was moved to the Catherine Palace at Tsarkoe Selo, 17 miles south of the Imperial Russian capital.
In 1941, the approaching Nazi army surrounded the city, then known by its Soviet name of Leningrad.
Tsarkoe Selo was one of the outlying areas occupied by the Germans.
They packed the amber panels in 27 crates and shipped them to Germany, where they vanished.
Dozens of theories have been put forward for their whereabouts and in some cases, millions spent trying to unearth the treasure, but as yet nothing has been found.
[dailymail.co.uk] [Pictured above, a restoration of the Amber Room in Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg]
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