An antiques dealer made the find of a lifetime at a Texas Goodwill store: a 2,000-year-old priceless work of Roman art that she scooped up for a measly $35.
Laura Young, of Austin, found the 52-pound Roman bust at the thrift store in her hometown in 2018 and figured it was worth such a modest investment.
“He looked Roman. He looked old,” Young told the San Antonio Express-News. “In the sunlight, it looked like something that could be very, very special.”
Young’s hunch proved correct: A Sotheby’s consultant later determined her extraordinary find to be a marble Julio-Claudian-era Roman bust that dates from the late first century BC to the early first century AD, the newspaper reported.
The bust — named “Portrait of a Man” — went on display Wednesday at the San Antonio Museum of Art, where it’ll stay until next May. The ancient work of art will then be returned to Germany, where it disappeared following World War II.
