Collector bought 2000-yr-old Roman bust for $35 at thrift store

WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:

• Art collector Laura Young bought a 50-pound marble bust at a thrift store for $34.99.
• She only realized how valuable the bust was after an auction house said the bust was probably of Roman general Drusus Germanicus.
• The 2,000-year-old Roman bust, which had been missing since WWII, is now at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

An art collector came into the possession of a 2,000-year-old Roman bust at a thrift store without realizing how valuable it was at first.

Laura Young purchased the 50-pound marble bust for $34.99 back in 2018, My San Antonio reported. When she consulted with a London auction house, they determined it to be a marble Julio-Claudian-era Roman bust that dates from the late first century BC to the early first century AD. It was a portrait bust of Roman general Drusus Germanicus.

The relic, which had been missing since WWII, was last seen at German museum Pompejanum, which was built by the German King Ludwig I in the 1840s.

Aschaffenburg, the city in which the museum is located, was targeted during the second World War, according to the website of the San Antonio Museum of Art. The attack caused damage to the museum, which then led to the disappearance of the sculpture.

After the war, the U.S. Army established several military installations throughout the city of Aschaffenburg. These stayed until the Cold War, after which a returning soldier may have brought the bust home to Texas.

The millenia-old sculpture is now housed safely at the San Antonio Museum of Art, which has the bust on loan from the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes.

According to the local art museum, the “Portrait of a Man,” will be on display until May 21, 2023, after which it will be shipped back to Germany.

Source: Inside Edition