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The proof for "Hercules at the Crossroads" was loaned from Wilhelmshöhe Palace to the Kupferstichkabinett of the then Royal Museums in Berlin in 1882. This work has now returned to Kassel. This marks the end in 2025, after more than 143 years, of perhaps the longest unintentional permanent loan in history. A significant moment and a reason for Hessen Kassel Heritage to plan an exhibition on Albrecht Dürer in 2026.

Art and Culture Timon Gremmels explains: "I would like to thank the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the team at Hessen Kassel Heritage for their excellent cooperation. We need to build bridges to promote the exchange of knowledge and understanding - this is the only way we can research and preserve our cultural heritage. I am also looking forward to the exhibition: although Dürer is one of the best-researched artists in the world, his prints still leave room for exciting interpretations. I am sure that the scientific preparation of this exhibition will once again open up new and interesting aspects of Dürer's work."

"Only a total of five proofs by Dürer have survived worldwide. Such proofs were made from the unfinished plate in order to check the effect of the finished work. These extremely rare and therefore particularly valuable pieces provide fascinating insights into the artistic production process. We are taking the return of the proof from Berlin as an opportunity to prepare a special exhibition on Albrecht Dürer together with the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt for the coming year," explains Dr Justus Lange. "The exhibition is expected to run from 8 October 2026 to 17 January 2027 at Wilhelmshöhe Palace."

Prof Dr Marion Ackermann explains: "We are grateful that we were able to have this wonderful proof by Dürer in Berlin for so long and, together with our colleagues in Kassel, we are looking forward to the further history of Dürer's objects in Hesse. This case also highlights the immense importance of provenance research, which not only serves to come to terms with Nazi injustice, but also provides us with so much information about the history of our own collection and also restores other lost knowledge about the provenance of works, as in this case."

"Property of the Royal Library at Wilhelmshöhe"

In the context of the founding of the German Empire in 1871, one of the world's highest-calibre collections of works by Dürer was established in Berlin. The director of the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, Dürer specialist Friedrich Lippmann (1838-1903), was interested in the proof of "Hercules at the Crossroads" and endeavoured to take it back to Berlin for further research. There, the print was listed in the inventory book of the Berlin Print Cabinet under no. 491-1882 as "Property of the Royal Library at Wilhelmshöhe, temporarily lent by the same." and, like the rest of the Berlin collection, is stored, researched and exhibited.

In the course of the preparations for the highly acclaimed exhibition "Dürer für Berlin", 2023 at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, the documents relating to the loan were inspected in the Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the provenance of the sheet from Kassel was published. It subsequently became clear that the colleagues in Kassel had clearly expressed their interest in the return of the print in the 1880s, but that the process then broke off and was presumably forgotten on both sides. Research into the ownership situation revealed that it was probably never transferred and was still on loan. After 143 years in Berlin, the print has now returned to Kassel.

Hercules at the crossroads

"Hercules at the Crossroads" is a motif by Dürer whose interpretation has not yet been fully clarified. A standing, angry female figure swings a branch stump at a satyr and a nymph, while a putto flees on the right. At the very front, a naked man stands prominently from behind, although it is not clear whether he is trying to protect the satyr and nymph or to strike them as well. There are further sheets with this motif in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. However, the proof that has now returned to Kassel is a speciality, as such unfinished proofs are important evidence of Dürer's working method. He first laid out the outlines of his figures and objects and then engraved the other pictorial elements piece by piece. In this trial proof, the satyr, the head and arm of the nymph, the putto and part of the landscape have not yet been worked out. The proof was made around 1498 and measures 32.4 x 22.3 cm.

Press contact Hessen Kassel Heritage:

Press and Public Relations
Lena Pralle
+49 (0)561 316 80-115
lena.pralle(at)heritage-kassel(dot)de
www.heritage-kassel.de

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