A rare proof print by Albrecht Dürer has finally returned to Kassel, Germany, after being on loan to Berlin for an extraordinary 143 years. The artwork, titled "Hercules at the Crossroads," was handed over at Wilhelmshöhe Palace in a ceremony attended by Marion Ackermann, the new president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
"We are happy to lend out artworks, but 143 years is quite a long time," joked Hesse's Minister of Arts Timon Gremmels during the presentation. The proof print was originally sent from Kassel to the Royal Museums in Berlin in 1882 and has only now been returned to its rightful home.
This is not just any print – it represents one of the world's rarest artistic treasures. Only five proof prints by Dürer (1471-1528) exist globally: two of the Hercules motif and three of Adam and Eve. Three are housed at the Albertina in Vienna, one at the British Museum in London, and now one has returned to Kassel. Minister Gremmels quipped that "if this were a library book, we'd be looking at quite the late fee," though the handover proceeded in a spirit of mutual cooperation.
The return was facilitated by several key figures who explained the curious history of this extended loan. Justus Lange, interim director of Hessen Kassel Heritage (HKH), Christiane Lukatis, head of Kassel's Graphics Collection, and Mailena Mallach, curator at the Kupferstichkabinett of the Berlin State Museums, detailed how the artwork came to remain in Berlin for nearly a century and a half.
The extended loan originated with Friedrich Lippmann (1833-1903), a Dürer specialist and director of the Kupferstichkabinett, who sought to build a prestigious Dürer collection following the founding of the German Reich in 1871. After Prussia annexed the Electorate of Hesse in 1866, the print was reluctantly sent to Berlin, with Kassel later making unsuccessful attempts to retrieve it. The inventory book recorded the work under number 491-1882 as "Property of the Royal Library at Wilhelmshöhe, temporarily loaned by the same," and this entry was never corrected.
The rediscovery came about through a stroke of luck in 2023. Sabine Naumer, a former librarian at Wilhelmshöhe Palace, spotted the Kassel provenance while visiting the Kupferstichkabinett's exhibition "Dürer for Berlin" and informed her former colleague. When Lukatis confirmed the Kassel origins in the online inventory book, she said it made her "heart beat a little faster."
These proof prints hold immense artistic and historical significance as they capture intermediate stages of the creative process. Artists like Dürer used them to control the effect of their work while still in development – he would lay out the contours of his figures before gradually engraving additional pictorial elements piece by piece. Dürer himself likely reused such proof prints as wrapping material or sketch sheets, as paper was expensive at the time.
"Even in the 19th century, they were something for nerds," noted curator Mallach. Today, however, they are considered crucial evidence of Dürer's working methods. "We can watch him working and thinking here," explained SPK President Ackermann. The interpretation of this particular print remains partially unclear to this day, and as Lukatis noted, "the elite of art history" has weighed in on its meaning.
To celebrate the return of this masterpiece after 143 years, Hessen Kassel Heritage plans to organize a special Dürer exhibition in fall 2026. The completed print, measuring 32.4 by 22.3 centimeters, will once again be accessible to visitors in its original home, marking the end of one of the longest art loans in museum history.
