THRIFT: It pays to shop at thrift stores.
Back in 2018, Texas woman Laura Young was shopping at Goodwill in Austin, Texas, when she noticed a bust under a table. There was a yellow price tag on its cheek — $34.99. It seemed like a good deal for the 52-pound bust, so she bought it, and nicknamed it Dennis.
Noticing Dennis looked old and worn, she started doing some research, consulting with University of Texas at Austin and auction houses across the country. Eventually, Jörg Deterling, a consultant for the fine arts brokerage Sotheby’s, identified the bust as a piece that was once in a German museum decades ago, and connected her with German authorities.
Turns out, the sculpture is from late first century B.C. to early first century A.D. It is believed to depict a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar. The bust was originally housed in a replica of a Pompeii home, called the Pompejanum, in the German city Aschaffenburg, which was destroyed during World War II.
The theory is that a U.S. soldier stole the bust in the 1950s and brought it home to the U.S. From there, it ended up at the thrift store.
The bust was on loan to the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) for a year, where it was viewed by thousands of visitors.
In April 2023, the bust was shipped back to Germany to be reunited with two other Roman sculptures from the museum. The bust will either be put back on display at the Pompejanum in Aschaffenburg or at the Glyptothek in Munich.
