A $ 34.99 purchase got one Texas woman an unexpected piece of art from ancient Roman times.
8月に戻る 2018, ローラ・ヤングは、52ポンドの大理石の胸像に出くわしたとき、オースティン地域ののれんで買い物をしていました。.
“I was just looking for anything that looked interesting,” ヤングは言った, and when she saw it, she knew she had to have it.
“It was a bargain at $ 35, there was no reason not to buy it,” ヤングは言った. She told CNN Friday she has been reselling her antique finds since 2011.
After the transaction, she knew she had to do some digging to see if the piece had any history to it.
And history it had.
Little did she know that purchase would have Roman ties and end up in the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), 4 数年後.
Laura Young and the 52-pound bust she found in August 2018.
やがて, Sotheby’s confirmed that the bust was in fact from ancient Roman times, and they estimated it to be about 2,000 年.
A specialist was able to track down the bust on a digital database and found photos from the 1930s of the head in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, ドイツ.
Lynley McAlpine, a postdoctoral curatorial fellow at SAMA, told CNN it is believed to be the bust of Sextus Pompey, a Roman military leader. 彼の父, Pompey the Great, was once an ally of Julius Caesar.
The bust was housed in a replica of a Pompeii 家, also known as Pompejanum, which was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.
There it was on display until 第二次世界大戦, which was the last time it was seen until Young bought it in 2018.
The portrait displayed in the courtyard of the Pompejanum, Aschaffenburg, 1931.
バスト, along with other artifacts in the home, had been moved into storage before the Pompejanum was bombed and destroyed during the war. ある時点で, the piece was stolen from storage.
“It seems like sometime between when it was put into storage until about 1950, someone found it and took it,” McAlpine said. “Since it ended up in the US it seems likely that some American that was stationed there got their hands on it.”
Young says she still wonders just how the piece ended up at a Goodwill in Austin, テキサス.
バスト, believed to be of Sextus Pompey, will be on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art until May 2023.
She said she tried to find the person who donated the statue through Craigslist, but had no luck.
“I would really love it if whoever donated it came forward,” ヤングは言った. “It’s most likely not the original person who took him, but would still like to know the story.”
The piece is currently being lent out contractually to SAMA for a year, but McAlpine explains it is still technically owned by Germany since it was looted from storage.
Young is proud to see her unique find on display for others to learn its history, but after May 2023, the bust will be sent back to Germany where it’ll go back on display, もう一度, in the Pompejanum.
