An 11-year-old boy rescued a mysterious work of art from the landfill. It turned out to be a 500-year-old Renaissance print

A detailed Renaissance engraving once rescued from the rubbish dump by an 11-year-old boy has been identified as the work of Albrecht Durerthe famous German Renaissance artist. The rare print now heads to the auction block, where it is expected to fetch more than $26,000.

“I have seen countless prints in which Dürer was copied, from a much later period or produced in some other way, but until now I had only seen the real work in museums,” says Jim Spencer, director of Rare book auctionsin one statement.

Dürer, born in 1471, is considered ‘one of the most technically gifted artists of all time’, as the London Times‘ writes Emma Yeomans. Dürer was a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinciand his work influenced artists such as Raphael And Titian. Although he also painted, Dürer’s most enduring pieces are his incredibly detailed works copper engravings.

When 24-year-old Mat Winter approached Spencer earlier this year with the print in question and told the bookseller that he had found it at a local dump more than a decade ago, Spencer’s expectations were low.

“I opened the package, removed the bubble wrap and staggered back in awe,” Spencer said in the statement. “My hands were shaking when I held it up to the light. The laid paper was absolutely appropriate for that period. The quality of the engraving was extremely exceptional. I knew that only one person could have produced something like this: it had to be the hand of Dürer himself.”

The work is a print of Dürer’s woodcut Knight, Death and the Devil (1513). It’s one of his three Masterpieceor master engravings. The illustration shows a knight astride a muscular horse, accompanied by a sickly, hourglass-wearing figure representing death, followed by a goat-like devil.

As Winter says in the statement, he has had an eye for antiques since he was 10. As a child, he searched the local landfill for treasure in Cranbrook, a town in southern England.

“One day a lady had some trash in her car, including the print,” Winter adds. “I thought it looked interesting and asked if I could have it. She was more than happy to give it to me. … It has been in a closet at home for the past 13 years, along with all my other antique finds.”

Winter recently decided to “get it checked out to see if it was as special as it looked,” he says. As soon as Spencer saw the print, he knew he needed a second opinion.

“I was immediately on the train to the British Museum,” says Spencer Artnetby Richard Whiddington. There, Spencer met with the museum’s prints and drawings experts, and they compared the print to three others in the museum’s collection.

One crucial detail confirmed the value of the work: a small, faint scratch through the head of the knight’s horse. Per ArtnetThis was the result of a scratch on the copper plate, which was later repaired. The scratch’s presence in Winter’s print proved it was real.

“It is the most important print I have ever cataloged and offered for sale,” Spencer said in the statement. “It was probably stuck on a mountain around 1900, which will affect the value, but it is a very nice impression with great clarity and contrasts, which is a huge bonus. In excellent unmounted condition, this is a print that could fetch sums approaching £200,000 [more than $260,000].”

The online auction for Winter’s print of Knight, Death and the Devil ends on September 18. As Spencer tells Artnetthe piece is an excellent example of Dürer’s artistic ability.

“Dürer’s earlier, more Gothic woodcuts were revolutionary,” he says. “But his copper engravings were even more astonishing, more awe-inspiring, almost superhuman, as this engraving shows.”