An ancient Roman bust from the first century that had been missing for decades has finally found its way to the San Antonio Museum of Art, thanks to one artist’s $40 purchase from a Texas Goodwill.
According to the San Antonio Museum of Art, art collector Laura Young was shopping at a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas in 2018 when she came across a sculpture on the floor beneath a table. Young, who hunts for cheap or uncommon art, told The Art Newspaper that she paid $34.99 for the sculpture, and a photo of it thereafter shows it belted up in her car with a price tag on its face.
Young wanted to know when and where the bust came from after purchasing it because it appeared to be quite old and weathered. Young spent the following few years consulting art history experts at the University of Texas at Austin and those at auction houses across the country in search of answers.
Jörg Deterling, a consultant for the fine arts brokerage Sotheby’s, eventually identified the bust as one that had previously been in a German museum and connected her with German authorities.
The sculpture, it turns out, dates from the late first century B.C. to the early first century A.D. The bust is thought to resemble Roman general Drusus Germanicus, according to The Art Newspaper. The museum believes it shows a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar.
The bust was part of a full-scale model of a home from Pompeii, dubbed the Pompejanum, that King Ludwig I of Bavaria created in Aschaffenburg, Germany, between 1786 and 1868. The replica stood for nearly 200 years before being badly damaged by Allied aircraft during World War II.
Nobody knows how the bust got from near destruction to the Austin Goodwill, but according to the museum, the US Army built bases in Aschaffenburg that were in use until the Cold War, so it was likely taken by a Texas soldier before going home.
In a statement, Emily Ballew Neff, Kelso director at the museum, said, “It’s a great story whose plot includes World War II-era, international diplomacy, art of the ancient Mediterranean, thrift shop sleuthing, historic Bavarian royalty, and the thoughtful stewardship of those who care for and preserve the arts, whether as individuals or institutions.”
Young was thrilled to learn about the bust’s history, but it was sad because she couldn’t keep or sell it.
“In any case,” she continued, “I’m delighted I got to be a small part of (its) long and intricate history, and he looked fantastic in the house while I had him.”