Divers discover chests near Nazi shipwreck that could hold looted treasure

Divers hoping to find the famous Amber Room treasures - pillaged by the Nazis from Russia in World War II - have discovered chests near the wreck of a German ship.

In September, the diving team found the wreck of the steamer Karlsruhe off Poland, after it sank 90 metres below the Baltic Sea in 1945 - possibly with the looted treasures aboard.

A sonar survey of the area around the wreck on Monday revealed there were chests and other objects.

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The Baltictech diving group said the protective features of some of the chests suggested they may hold valuable contents.

"Some of the chests were open. The one with special rubber gaskets gives hope that these might be valuable objects - maybe paintings?"

An underwater robot deployed during the survey was unable to identify the contents of the other chests.

The Amber Room - decorated with amber and gold - was part of a Tsarist palace in St Petersburg but was dismantled by the invading German army after the invasion of Russia in 1941.

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It was last seen in 1945 during the final months of World War II in a Nazi-controlled Baltic port city.

The Amber Room treasures are valued to be worth at least A$400 million.

The Karlsruhe left Koenigsberg - which is today the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad - in April 1945 before it was sunk by Soviet warplanes, with the loss of 979 lives.

Diver Tomasz Stachura said earlier this year the wreck held a variety of cargo.

"It is practically intact. In its holds, we discovered military vehicles, porcelain and many crates with contents still unknown."

The Karlsruhe had been taking part in the sea evacuation in history of more than one million German troops and civilians from East Prussia at the end of World War II.

The Amber Room was built in Prussia and then given to the Russian royal family in 1716 as a gift.

Following World War II, Russian experts constructed a replica inside the Catherine Palace in St Petersburg.

Baltictech said it planned to return to the wreck site next northern spring.

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