In this room:

The Study

]
A hardwood desk is covered in papers and boxes.


You need a key to open the desk and I assume it is in the papers as you see this:

The papers are usually shipping orders, or fiscal reports.
It is closed.

When you try to open them ...

open papers
You see no papers here.


I used to pick the desk but I need the correct key now.

“You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper.”
―Robert Alton Harris

I'm a bit curious. Do all of these locked desks and chests around have keys or can some only be picked? This area is quite old and i couldnot find a key nor locate it. The info would be quite handy as I explore Thera.

Cheers

Whether a lock has a key at all is up to the area author, as is it's difficulty.

But probably poor area design.

There is a desk in the room that has the keywords 'oak desk' but also has "extra descriptions" containing the keyword 'paper'. So you can look papers, but to open the actual container (desk) you need to open desk.