Joint press release of the State Chancellery and Ministry of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt and the Vereinigte Domstifter on the return of the Cranach-Triegel altar to Naumburg Cathedral:

The Cranach-Triegel altar can return to Naumburg and be shown again in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral as part of an exhibition until July 2025. The Unesco World Heritage Center has agreed to this in a letter to the federal government. The letter was forwarded today via the State Chancellery and Ministry of Culture to the United Cathedral Foundations in Naumburg. On the advice of the State Chancellery, the United Cathedral Foundations had submitted the project to the World Heritage Center in Paris for consideration last year.

Thus, the dispute about possible consequences of the return of the altar for the World Heritage status of the cathedral has been settled for the time being. Minister of State and Minister of Culture Rainer Robra: "From the point of view of the state, it is very welcome that there is now clarity for the moment." Science and visitors would thus have time to form their own opinion.

The Unesco approval now available does not include any further technical assessment of whether the altar is a threat to the cathedral's World Heritage status, and is based on a technical opinion from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) dated June 2022.

In the letter, Unesco initially grants a three-year exhibition period from the date of the altar's first installation in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral on July 3, 2022. The altar was placed there until December 2022, after which it was displayed in the Diözesanmuseum in Paderborn and is currently on display in the Klosterneuburg Abbey near Vienna. In a first reaction, the United Cathedral Foundations stressed that they wished to present the altar again in the west choir from the beginning of December 2023 until July 2025, this in accordance with the letter from Paris. "We are overjoyed about the homecoming of the altar retable and thank you very much for the constructive cooperation with the World Heritage Center in Paris and the State Chancellery of Saxony-Anhalt," expressed the dean of the United Cathedral Foundations Prof. Dr. Karin von Welck and the director of the foundation Dr. Holger Kunde.

Background:

The Leipzig painter Michael Triegel had added a central section to the altarpiece created between 1517 and 1519 by Lukas Cranach the Elder, which was later partly destroyed. The Marian altar was on display in Naumburg Cathedral from July 2022. The location of the altarpiece in the west choir of the cathedral between the donor figures like Uta of Naumburg is disputed. From the point of view of experts of the World Monuments Council, the altarpiece impairs the visual relations in the west choir. Thus, because of its location, there was even discussion about a possible withdrawal of the World Heritage title for the cathedral. Against this background, the United Cathedral Foundations had shortened the exhibition, initially planned for three years, and sent the altar on its way.