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Following the meeting, the cars, still loaded down, left the yard and Rohde then arrived at the Blutgericht restaurant to order a case of wine from me, telling me that he would be away for several days. He came back three weeks later and I saw him again. Rohde told me that he had been to a big country estate. Some time later he told me that his mission concerned the amber hall from Russia, which had been packed on these cars.

Following Kuchumov's prompts, Tronchinsky tore into Feyerabend. There was no evidence that Rohde had made any trips out of Konigsberg until the air raids of 27-28 August 1944. Rohde had told Brusov that after he had dismantled the Amber Room in July 1944, it had been stored in the cellars of the castle's south wing. What was the date of Rohde's expedition with the room? 'July 1944,' Feyerabend insisted.

The restaurant owner was asked to think hard about his statement, but he had nothing to add or take away. He could, however, recall other conversations he had had with Rohde after that date: 'Rohde told me many times that the room should and would have gone to Saxony in the end, but due to logistical problems in March [1945], it had not been moved there. Gauleiter Erich Koch had wanted it evacuated to Saxony too, but the tight military situation would not allow it.' But was Feyerabend in a position to know, Kuchumov asked? He might have poured wine for the elite but did he drink with them? How likely was it that a man of Rohde's intellect would trade secrets with a restaurateur?

The interrogation continued but the transcript before us abruptly finishes. We make a note to find the missing pages.

The next interrogation was of Ernst Schaumann, a war artist and friend of Rohde. He described Rohde as an amber expert. Rohde had written a seminal book known as Bernstein in 1937.16 'Must get a copy,' noted Kuchumov.

In April 1942 Rohde had also prepared an article illustrated with photographs for Pantheon, a German art digest, to celebrate the Amber Room going on display in the second-floor gallery in the south wing of Konigsberg Castle.17 'We must get this too,' Kuchumov wrote. Schaumann came up with the name of a new witness for the Soviets to find: Jurgen Sprecht, a Konigsberg restorer who had been sponsored by Rohde to study in Berlin. 'He was later assigned to work on the Amber Room,' Schaumann told Tronchinsky. 'Find Sprecht,' Kuchumov wrote.

Schaumann recalled one notable conversation he had had with Rohde: 'After my return from France in October 1944, I asked Dr Rohde about the destiny of the amber and picture collections,' Schaumann told Tronchinsky. 'He answered that by order of the authorities in Berlin they were packed and transferred to safe places at estates in East Prussia and Saxony. Later, at the time when Konigsberg was surrounded by the Red Army, Rohde repeated the claim.' Tronchinsky lost his cool. Feyerabend and Schaumann could not both be right. The Amber Room was either evacuated or not. One of them was lying. Kuchumov said nothing. He could not decide if Schaumann was credible or confused.

Finally, Otto Smakka was called. Smakka worked as a translator for the fisheries in Konigsberg. He confirmed the Amber Room had been on display. 'Yes, I saw it in the summer of 1942. It had obviously suffered in transportation. Several pieces of amber were either stolen or lost. Even the printed information sheets mentioned that parts were missing in the walls. It occurred to me that they were probably stolen.' The vast and opulent room that we have in our mind's eye, candles blazing, walls glowing, as it appears in the glass plate we were shown by Kuchumov's granddaughter, was not the Amber Room that had reached Konigsberg in the freezing winter of 1941. Since then, Kuchumov had established that three of the four Florentine stone mosaics had been destroyed, as had parts of the amber skirting board. Kuchumov noted that the scale of the Amber Room they were searching for was significantly different from the one installed in the Catherine Palace. But it did not affect his general conclusions