The Malachite Room: A Green Friendship, Betrayed

The Malachite Room takes its name from malachite, the lustrous green mineral adorning the basin used as a wine cooler at the room's center, as well as the vases and candlesticks around it. Sourced from Siberia, malachite was as prized as gold at the time, and this particular set was a gift from Tsar Alexander I of Russia to Napoleon as a token of their friendship.

That friendship, however, did not last. When Napoleon barred other European nations from trading with Britain in an effort to isolate it, Russia — which depended on grain trade with Britain — suffered badly. Alexander I eventually began trading with Britain in secret, and when Napoleon learned of it, he took it as a betrayal. Napoleon led an army of 600,000 men into Russia to punish his former friend, only to suffer a crushing defeat in the brutal cold. Ironically, after Napoleon's downfall, it was none other than Alexander I who occupied Paris. The two men's relationship ended in ruin, but the mineral that once symbolized their friendship still gleams a lustrous green today.