The Amber Room Read Online Free PDF Page A

people would give up on the Nazi legacy thing. Fifty years is a long time for some three-hundred-year-old canvas to languish in a damp mine. It would be a miracle if it wasn’t a mass of mold.”
    He creased his forehead. “The good stuff already found or lost forever.”
    “I guess you should know all about that.”
    He nodded. “A little experience there, yes.” He tried to conceal his current interest, though his insides were churning. “Could you buy me copy of thatUSA newspaper?”
    “Don’t have to. Mine’s in the car. I’ll go get it.”
    Paul left through the front door just as the back door opened and the two children trotted into the den.
    “Your papa’s here,” he said to Marla.
    Paul returned, handed him the paper, then said to the children, “Did you drown the tomatoes?”
    The little girl giggled. “No, Daddy.” She tugged at Paul’s arm. “Come see Granddaddy’s vegetables.”
    Paul looked at him and smiled. “I’ll be right back. That article is on page four or five, I think.”
    He waited until they left through the kitchen before finding the story and reading every word.
    GERMAN TREASURES AWAIT?
    By Fran Downing, Staff Writer
    Fifty-two years have passed since Nazi convoys rolled through the Harz Mountains into tunnels dug specifically to secret away art and other Reich valuables. Originally, the caverns were used as weapons manufacturing sites and munitions depots. But in the final days of World War II, they became perfect repositories for pillaged loot and national treasures.
    Two years ago, Wayland McKoy led an expedition into the Heimkehl Caverns near Uftrugen, Germany, in search of two railroad cars buried under tons of gypsum. McKoy found the cars, along with several old master paintings, toward which the French and Dutch governments paid a handsome finder’s fee.
    This time McKoy, a North Carolina contractor, real estate developer and amateur treasure hunter, is hoping for bigger loot. He’s been a part of four past expeditions and is hoping his latest, which starts next week, will be his most successful.
    “Think about it. It’s 1945. The Russians are coming from one end, the Americans from another. You’re the curator of the Berlin museum full of art stolen from every invaded country. You’ve got a few hours. What do you put on the train to get out of town? Obviously, the most valuable stuff.”
    McKoy tells the tale of one such train that left Berlin in the waning days of World War II, heading south for central Germany and the Harz Mountains. No records exist of its destination, and he’s hoping the cargo lies within some caverns found only last fall. Interviews with relatives of German soldiers who helped load the train have convinced him of the train’s existence. Earlier this year, McKoy used ground-penetrating radar to scan the new caverns.
    “Something’s in there,” McKoy says. “Certainly big enough to be boxcars or storage crates.”
    McKoy has already secured a permit from German authorities to excavate. He’s particularly excited about the prospects of foraging this new site, since, to his knowledge, no one has yet excavated the area. Once a part of East Germany, the region has been off-limits for decades. Current German law provides that McKoy can retain only a small portion of whatever is not claimed by rightful owners. Yet McKoy is undeterred. “It’s exciting. Hell, who knows, the Amber Room could be hidden under all that rock.”
    The excavations will be slow and hard. Backhoes and bulldozers could damage the treasure, so McKoy will be forced to drill holes in the rocks and then chemically break them apart.
    “It’s slow going and dangerous, but worth the trouble,” he says. “The Nazis had prisoners dig hundreds of caves, where they stored ammunition to keep it safe from the bombers. Even the caves used as art repositories were many times mined. The trick is to find the right cave and get inside safely.”
    McKoy’s equipment, seven employees