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Laura Young was looking for treasure at her local Goodwill in 2018 when she spotted it – a white sculpture among trifles and handmade hands. Acting in anticipation, she touched her bust to confirm that it was not a cheap plastic fake. It was cold, heavy and marble.
“This is the real deal. You can feel it, “she told The Washington Post.
Young, who works full-time as a self-employed antiques dealer in Texas, suspected that the bust depicting a slender man with a straight face, illuminated only by the yellow price of $ 34.99 on his cheek, was much more special than the modest one. his grocery store. the neighborhood suggested.
Young, 43, bought the sculpture, tied it to the passenger seat of her car and returned home to begin research. With the help of experts, she will discover in the next few months that the bust was sculpted about 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome, bought by a Bavarian king in the early 19th century for display in present-day Germany and looted at the end of World War II.
The statue’s journey from Germany in the 1940s to a grocery store in Austin more than 70 years later is still a mystery.
The present and future of sculpture are clearer. It is now on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art as part of an agreement between Young and her lawyer with the rightful owners of the bust, the Bavarian government in Germany. He will remain there until 2023, before returning home to Germany after a nearly 80-year absence.
Laura Young, a Texas antiques dealer, bought a 52-pound bust at Goodwill for $ 35 in 2018. It turned out to be a 2,000-year-old Roman artifact. (Video: Laura Young through Storyful)
But Young knew none of this on August 13, 2018, when he asked a Goodwill Boutique employee to drag the 52-pound bust into his car. In full sunlight, she could see her rough diamond better – it was old and dirty, but even where it was broken, the repairs were of high quality. The anonymous man’s hair was in the Greco-Roman style she had seen on other Roman statues.
After returning home, Young began his research by searching Google for “Roman Marble Bust.”
“All these chapters are rising and looking like this chapter,” she said.
Still, Young wondered if it might be an ancient reproduction. She photographed the bust and sent the photos to several auction houses and art dealers. About a week later, Bonhams and Sotheby’s confirmed her premonition: the bust is from ancient Rome.
Young continued to dig into the statue’s past, even as the piece itself became an integral part of her household. Early in what would be a long stay, Young and her husband named their new guest, Dennis, after the narcissistic scumbag in Philadelphia It’s Always Sunny, one of their favorite TV shows. Like his full namesake, the bust was torn off, uninteresting.
“He’s cool, he’s aside – without emotion – probably a bit of a sociopath,” Young told The Post.
Yong, meanwhile, attracted researcher Jörg Detterling, who learned that the bust’s home was the historic Pompejanum building in Aschaffenburg, Germany, something confirmed by representatives of the Bavarian government. The subject of the bust has not been definitively identified, but art experts say it could be Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, a Roman military commander, or the son of Pompey the Great, a Roman statesman and general.
“We don’t know who it is,” Jessica Powers, temporary chief art curator of the ancient Mediterranean world at the San Antonio Museum of Art, told Art Newspaper.
In the 19th century, King Ludwig I of Bavaria bought the bust while drunk, in which he devoured works of art and commissioned major museums, an attempt to rival major European capitals, including Rome and Paris, according to Amineddoleh & Associates, a law firm. which represents Young. This impetus included the construction of Pompeianum, a replica of a Roman town house in Pompeii.
There, the bust has existed for more than a century of history, as Germany became a modern nation state in 1871, emerging as a leading European power, losing World War I and ending in an economic depression that would give rise to the Nazi Party and lead to the Second world War.
The war did not spare Pompeian. The museum was heavily bombed by Allied forces during World War II, destroying much of its collection, according to the law firm. As the Nazis disintegrated, the bust was looted. Given where Young found it, the sculpture was probably looted by a U.S. serviceman or someone who eventually exchanged it for one, according to Amineddoleh & Associates.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Bavarian government still holds legitimate claims to the bust, which has put Young in a difficult position. She had made the antique dealers dream of paying $ 35 for a priceless artifact she couldn’t sell, at least not legally.
After learning that the bust had been looted, Young hired a New York-based lawyer specializing in art law, Leila Aminedole, who began working with the Bavarian government. The talks sank under the weight of the government bureaucracy and then the coronavirus pandemic, Aminedole told The Post. But at the end of last year, the two sides reached an agreement, and according to Art Newspaper, representatives of the Bavarian government signed the agreement late last month.
Under the agreement, the Bavarian government will pay Young the search fee in addition to the cost of storing, insuring and sending the bust back to Germany, writes Art Newspaper. Young and Aminedole declined to speak to The Post about the details of the deal, saying it included a confidentiality agreement.
After more than three years, Young is no longer Dennis’s roommate, but she will always be part of the history of the bust or its “origin,” the art world’s jargon for the prehistory of the work of art. Her role will be noted on the plaque after she returns to Bavaria. And Dennis will spend a little more time where he reappeared on the radar nearly four years ago.
Young and Aminedole said it was important for people in Texas to see Dennis, or “Portrait of a Man,” as the bust is known in an exhibition at the San Antonio Museum of Art. By the time he leaves for Germany next year, Texans will have a chance to see the bust and learn not only about its ancient Roman roots, but also about its recent past – how the sculpture ended up in an art museum in San Antonio thousands of miles away. it was supposed to be.
Or at least the reason we know – Young.
“Some of the most interesting stories in the history of art – it’s not about the objects themselves,” said Aminedol. “Sometimes it’s really about the way other stories move and are told.”
Aminedol then mentioned Young as a case in point.
“She’s part of this facility and always will be.”
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