San Antonio – A marble statue that a Texas woman bought from a Goodwill store for about $35 was temporarily on display at the San Antonio Museum after experts determined it was from Germany since World War II. Missing from was a centuries-old idol.
According to the San Antonio Museum of Art, the bust that art collector Laura Young found at Goodwill in 2018 was once in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who is temporarily displaying the piece until his return to Germany next year.
The museum said the ancient Roman statue dates to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD and that historians believe it may depict the son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in a civil war by Julius Caesar. The museum said the sculpture was last seen in Aschaffenburg, Germany, and experts believe a soldier took the sculpture and brought it to the United States.
The museum said a Sotheby’s consultant identified the work and it was further certified.
“We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful place,” said the chairman of the Bavarian Administration of State-owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes Bernd Schreiber said. ,
Young said there were months of “intense excitement” after learning the history behind the piece, which he found on the floor under a table at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas.
Austin radio station KUT reported that Young negotiated a deal to return the statue to Germany with the help of a lawyer specializing in international art law. The terms of that deal were confidential.
“But it was bitter because I knew I couldn’t keep (bust) or sell,” she said. “Either way, I’m glad I became a small part of (its) long and complicated history, and he looked great in the house while I was there.”
