A $34.99 purchase gave a Texas woman an unexpected piece of art from ancient Roman times.
In August 2018, Laura Young was shopping at an Austin-area Goodwill store when she came across a £52 marble bust.
“I was just looking for anything that looked interesting,” Young said, and when she saw it, she knew she had to have it.
“It was a bargain at $35, there was no reason not to buy it,” Young said. she told the CNN on Friday (6) which has been selling its old finds since 2011.
After the transaction, she knew she had to do some digging to see if the piece had any history.
Little did she know that the purchase would have Roman ties and would end up at the San Antonio Art Museum (Sama), 4 years later. She contacted auction houses and experts for any information she could about the marble structure.
Eventually, Sotheby’s confirmed that the bust was indeed from ancient Roman times, and they estimated it to be around 2,000 years old.
An expert was able to track the bust through a digital database and found 1930s photos of the head in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany.
Lynley McAlpine, postdoctoral curator at Sama, told CNN believed to be the bust of Sextus Pompey, a Roman military leader. His father, Pompey the Great, was once an ally of Julius Caesar.
The bust was housed in a replica of a Pompeii house, also known as the Pompejanum, commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
There it was on display until World War II, which was the last time it was seen until Young bought it in 2018.
The bust, along with other artifacts from the house, was moved to a warehouse before the Pompejanum was bombed and destroyed during the war. At some point, the piece was stolen from storage.
“It seems that somewhere between when it was stored until about 1950, someone found it and took it,” McAlpine said. “Since it ended up in the US, it seems likely that some American who was stationed there got their hands on it.”
Young says he still wonders how the play ended up at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas. She said she tried to find the person who donated the statue through Craigslist, but had no luck.
“I would really love it if whoever donated it would come forward,” Young said. “It’s probably not the original person who took it, but I’d still like to know the story.”
The piece is being contractually loaned to Sama for a year, but McAlpine explains that it is still technically owned by Germany since it was looted from storage.
Young is proud to see his unique find on display for others to learn its history, but after May 2023, the bust will be shipped back to Germany, where it will once again be displayed at the Pompejanum.
Source: CNN Brasil
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