Loved and forgotten, rediscovered and sought-after and rescued, in return for a silver four-color pen from being taken away to the Soviet Union. But first, back to the beginning. This is about the desk of Frederick II, a “bureau plat” for his bedroom in Sanssouci, which he had had made in Paris in 1746. It was such an elegant piece of furniture that he ordered at least two copies, one for his bedroom at the Potsdam palace and another for his palace in Breslau. Made of satinwood and standing on slighting curved Rococo legs, it is set in fire-gilded bronze palm fronds, acanthus and rocailles.

After the death of Frederick II in 1786, the desk was forgotten. In 1826 it was mentioned in an inventory; a water-color from the 1860s shows it in the dressing room of the Prussian Queen Elisabeth. It did turn up again until 1926 when Crown Prince Wilhelm returned from exile and had it sold to a jewelry dealer. After the latter’s death in 1929, Jakob Oppenheimer took over the company along with the “bureau plat”.

When the National Socialist SA besieged the Oppenheimer residence in 1933, the family and desk were fortunately already in Paris. Sentenced to considerable payments by the Tiergarten Tax Office for fleeing the Reich and with the aim of protecting those relatives who had remained in Germany, Oppenheimer returned the desk in 1934 – it was Frederick II’s “bureau plat” the authorities wanted, not the money. After the war – to return to the beginning of this article – the Director of Prussian Palaces and Gardens rescued it in return for the silver four-color pen. In 2002, the Oppenheimer heirs applied for restitution. Fortunately, an amicable agreement was arrived at and this very personal item from the life of Frederick the Great was preserved for Sanssouci.