A woman bought a white marble statue of a human head in a charitable store in the United States, only to discover later that she had acquired a priceless 2,000-year-old masterpiece.
Laura Young, an antiques dealer from Austin, Texas, bought a 50-pound bust in 2018 for just $35, strapped it in her car with a seat belt and took it home.
And Laura Young contacted an auction house in London to display her sculpture, to get the shocking answer, that the sculpture was most likely a bust that served as a portrait of the Roman general Drusus Germanicus, and that the date of its sculpture could be traced back to two thousand years.
A woman "#LauraYoung" bought a #sculpture at #Goodwill for $34.99. It actually was a missing #Ancient #RomanBust <3 @jzebraa #Art #Marble May be #DrususGermanicus or a son of #PompeyTheGreat and had belonged to #KingLudwigI of #Bavaria https://t.co/a3YQ9Ld2Re pic.twitter.com/DkEobaEtBL
— Jzebraa💎 ℐ☆⋓ᴚᴆ⍣ϗ∞ɀ∑βяⒶ⋀ ®🌐 (@jzebraa) May 6, 2022
According to the house’s information, its last known location was in the 1920s and 1930s in a museum in the German city of Aschaffenburg that was built in the 1840s and was heavily damaged in World War II.
Stephenie Mulder, professor of art history at the University of Austin, suggested that an American soldier either looted the bust himself or bought it from someone else who preceded him.
The whereabouts of the bust remained a mystery since then until it randomly appeared in a charity store in Austin.
Discovering his provenance, and his stolen origin, Young must return it to Germany, where this is now overseen by a New York lawyer specializing in international art law.
It is worth noting that the statue will be displayed at the San Antonio Museum of Modern Art in the United States for a year before returning to Germany in 2023, where it will be received by the Bavarian State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes Administration.
Grande semaine aussi pour deux bustes volés pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale ! 🎉
– L'empereur Maximien Hercule, acheté en 1961 par le @mfaboston, rendu à l'Italie ✅
– Le général Drusus Germanicus, acheté en 2018 dans un magasin solidaire au Texas, rendu à l'Allemagne ✅ pic.twitter.com/wnuKzQXzHJ— Sabrina Bennoui (@SabrinaBennoui) May 5, 2022
To read about the amazing, swashbuckling life of the real Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus Imp., see EAGER FOR GLORY (@penswordbooks, @casematepub): https://t.co/yvg6dvOYh9
— Lindsay Powell (@Lindsay_Powell) May 5, 2022