Ancient Roman bust Goodwill

Laura Young, a Texas antiques dealer, thought she had found a steal when she came across a stunning statue at a Goodwill store in 2018 for just under $35.

But first, she said she wanted it to be put on display in her home state and an agreement was eventually made to allow the sculpture to be put on exhibit at the San Antonio Museum of Art. That could be dangerous to display something like that.” And once she purchased the statue, she told the San Antonio Express-News, "in the sunlight, it looked like something that could be very, very special." It had taken years to determine the authenticity of the bust. The San Antonio Museum of Art said the bust would eventually be returned to Germany. However, it said the portrait would remain on display at the museum until late May 2023, with the agreement of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes. “It’s unusual to have something like this.

When Laura Young first spotted “Dennis Reynolds,” a 52-pound marble bust she named after a character in the television series “It's Always Sunny in ...

Everybody wants to have that Goodwill find and It’s interesting to think that this work has come from this house in Germany all the way to Austin, Texas, in dialogue with our own collection.” You can’t just FedEx a sculpture to Europe,” McAlpine said. She said she ran into the gallery screaming, “Where is he? “We are more of a stopgap in the process of getting it back to its rightful home,” she said. The COVID-19 pandemic caused long delays in relocating the bust. It would have been nice to keep him but I’m glad that I was the one who found him. I don’t think that a lot of people would try to return it. “There’s definitely some scratches and nicks in it that weren’t there then but overall [it’s] in good condition.” “There was a flurry of excitement.” I’m glad that he didn’t end up in someone’s backyard,” she said. She strapped it in her car and took it home. With a tentative identification, Young contacted UT Austin faculty members who connected her to McAlpine’s colleague and SAMA Curator Jessica Powers.

The bust, which art collector Laura Young found at Goodwill in 2018, once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, according to the San ...

“But it was bittersweet since I knew I couldn’t keep or sell the (bust),” she said. The ancient Roman bust dates to the first century B.C. or first century A.D. and historians believe it may depict a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar, the museum said. Terms of that deal were confidential.

Experts are debating who the bust portrays, but they agree on one thing—a thrift store is an unusual spot to find a millennia-old statue.

A lover of history and the arts, the king was a rabid collector of ancient statues. Young sought records from Goodwill about the person who brought it in, but they had no record of the donor. “Every time you walk into the kitchen, you pass the head. Like many of his era, he was inspired by early excavations of the villa’s namesake, the doomed Italian city of Pompeii. The estate’s decor included plenty of statues—including, apparently, the bust that would one day sit on a thrift store shelf. It’s also interesting that someone preserved it and had it in their collection as a personal enemy to the emperor. Though her first thought was to sell it, a lawyer advised against that move. Little mystery surrounds the provenance of the bust. After his father’s death, Sextus continued the battle, but he was eventually executed. Scholars are divided as to whom the bust actually depicts. “ … [T]he object itself is not terribly unusual, but [its presence at the store] is what makes it extraordinary.” Caesar eventually emerged victorious, and Pompey the Great was killed. The bust’s price was hard to miss.

Laura Young bought the 52-pound bust, which she named "Dennis Reynolds," in 2018 while bargain hunting at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas.

The law firm did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside normal working hours. The bust will be lent for one year to the San Antonio Museum of Art, which credited Young's Goodwill discovery. Goodwill did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside normal working hours. She did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. She added: "It was extremely bittersweet, to say the least. "He was attractive, he was cold, he was aloof.

Finding a rare or valuable vintage item on the cheap is a huge thrill — and one woman from Texas certainly achieved that.

“It was extremely bittersweet, to say the least. But I only have control over what I can control, and art theft, looting during a war, is a war crime. Because the piece was stolen from Germany, Young was unable to claim title as rightful owner of the bust, nor was she able to sell it for a significant windfall.

SAN ANTONIO A marble bust that a Texas woman bought for about $35 from a Goodwill store is temporarily on display at a San Antonio museum after experts ...

“But it was bittersweet since I knew I couldn’t keep or sell the (bust),” she said. “Either way, I’m glad I got to be a small part of (its) long and complicated history, and he looked great in the house while I had him.” The ancient Roman bust dates to the first century B.C. or first century A.D. It was last seen in Aschaffenburg, Germany, and experts believe a soldier took the sculpture and brought it to the United States, the museum said.