Overview
- The Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt opens the special exhibition on Friday, 2 October 2026, and will show it through 17 January 2027.
- The show brings together more than 170 works and specimens, including East Asian art, medieval objects, fossils, taxidermy and graphic prints by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and Arnold Böcklin.
- Curators frame the exhibition to combine art history and natural science so visitors can see how real-world finds such as fossils fed the imagination behind dragon stories.
- The project was developed with Cologne partners Museum Schnütgen and the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, and the exhibition will move to Köln as a second station starting 4 March 2027.
- Organizers expect the display to reach diverse audiences by pairing scholarly objects and family-friendly elements, offering a cross-cultural view that contrasts European depictions of dangerous dragons with East Asian traditions that treat them as auspicious.