An amazing rescue of a famous and important work of art

Many of you know Albrecht Durer's engraving "The Knight, Death and the Devil." I'm having trouble finding an image I can copy, but you can see an excellent version at Medievalists.net. It's glorius, even on an average computer screen. One wonders what it looks like in person.

The reason Medievalists.net is interested is that this masterpiece of 16th century art recently was sold for a lot of money. The money doesn't interest me; its the backstory.

There are various copies of this engraving around, but this one seems to be done by Durer himself. The reason we have it is that some years ago a woman pulled up to an English garbage dump and started emptying her car of stuff she didn't want, including this engraving (My initial feeling on reading this was anger. Who could do this? But I've learned that there is always more to a story than the headline.)

Luckily there was an 11-year-old boy presentwho made a habit of checking out the dump for unloved treasures and he asked if he could have it. He's no longer 11 and he's sold it. We who appreciate art are richer for it.

I realized that I have never thought about the significance of this image. I understand that Durer did not invent this image -- he just created the most lasting version. As a historian of chivalry, I really should look into it.