Colossal “Antinous” statue from the avant-corps of the giant staircase in the Schlüterhof

This room is extremely narrow and high – and for a good reason: in the Berlin Palace the space was once occupied by the large staircase hall, which extended up three and a half storeys. This spatial idea by the architect in charge of building the palace, Andreas Schlüter (1659–1714), inspired the dimensions of the Sculpture Hall in the Humboldt Forum, which was designed by Franco Stella (b. 1943).
The sculptures exhibited here were not originally placed in the staircase hall. They are fragments of the palace facades which were saved when the building was demolished in 1950. They functioned as models for the reconstruction of the Baroque facades; in fact, if you look very closely at the new Humboldt Forum building, you can spot copies of several of the sculptures – for instance, on the large gateway in the courtyard.