Vyacheslav Kurakin, an amber craftsman, threads amber as he restores one of the decorative panels...

Vyacheslav Kurakin, an amber craftsman, threads amber as he restores one of the decorative panels from the Amber room in the Ekaterininsky palace in the city of Tsarskoe Selo, some 20 kms outside St. Petersburg, September 7. The German firm Ruhrgas has assigned $3.5 million to help with the restoration of the room, which started in 1979 and is so far only half completed, in time for the celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of St. Petersburg in 2003. The room was given as a gift to Russian Tsar Peter I by the King of Prussia, Fredrich Wilhelm I, in 1716.