As early as August 2018, Laura Young was shopping at Goodwill in the Austin area when she came across a 52-pound marble bust.
“I was just looking for anything that looked interesting,” Young said, and when he saw it, he knew he had to have it.
“It was a bargain for $ 35, there was no reason not to buy it,” Young said. She told CNN on Friday that she was reselling her 2011 antiques.
After the deal, she knew she had to dig around to see if the song had any history.
And there was a story.
She did not know that the purchase would have Roman connections and would end up at the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), 4 years later.
She contacted auction houses and experts to get any information about the marble structure. Eventually, Sotheby’s confirmed that the bust was actually from ancient Roman times, and they estimated it to be about 2,000 years old.
A specialist was able to trace the bust in a digital database and found photos from the 1930s of the head in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, Germany.
Linley McAlpine, a postdoctoral curator at SAMA, told CNN it was believed to be a 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 house in Pompeii, also known as Pompeii, which was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. It was on display there until World War II, which was the last time it was seen until Young bought it in 2018.
The bust, along with other artifacts in the home, was moved to a warehouse before the Pompeianum was bombed and destroyed during the war. At one point the piece was stolen from a warehouse.
“Somewhere between the time it was stored until about 1950, someone seems to have found and taken it,” McAlpine said. “Since he ended up in the United States, it seems likely that an American who was there got it.
Young says he’s still wondering how the song ended up at Goodwill in Austin, Texas.
She said she tried to find the man who donated the statue through Craigslist, but was unlucky.
“I would be really happy if the person who donated it showed up,” Young said. “It’s probably not the original man who took it, but he would still like to learn the story.
The piece is currently being lent to SAMA under a one-year contract, but McAlpine explains that it is still technically owned by Germany because it was looted from a warehouse.
Young is proud to see her unique find on display so others can learn its history, but after May 2023, the bust will be sent back to Germany, where it will be exhibited again at the Pompeianum.
Add Comment