AUSTIN, Texas — One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That statement could not be more true for antique dealer Laura Young.
It was just another thrifting day in 2018 for Young when she stumbled upon a 50-pound, white marble bust at the Goodwill on Far West Boulevard in Austin, according to KUT. The price tag read $34.99 so she bought the bust at what she thought was a steal and brought it home.
It wasn’t until Young did some research to find out more about the sculpture that she discovered her bust was of a man named Drusus Germanicus and was 2,000 years old. An auction house in London confirmed that the bust was very old and another auction house was able to find the head in a German museum catalog from 1920s and 1930s, according to KUT. The museum is called Pompejanom in Germany, a replica of a villa in Pompeii. It was built by German King Ludwig the First to house Roman art, including this statue of Germanicus.
How this ancient bust arrived at a Goodwill in Austin is not exactly clear, but one theory is that when the German museum was bombed in World War II, thousands of art pieces were stolen and brought back to America by U.S. soldiers. According to KUT, the bust may have been passed around or sat for decades in someone’s home who then decided they didn’t want it anymore and dropped it off at the local Goodwill.
After Young uncovered the facts of her new treasure, she was unable to keep it or sell it. So she contacted a lawyer who specializes in international art law and negotiated for the last couple years to find a new home for the bust. Ultimately, the Germans will take back the bust.
According to KUT, the terms of the deal are confidential but Germanicus will be on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art for about a year before he heads back to its motherland. Amidst her discoveries, Young also found out that the sculpture may not actually be of Germanicus himself, but just one that looks like him. Before giving him up, Young had a half-size copy of him 3D printed to remember her special journey with a touch of ancient history.