Bust sold at Goodwill for $34.99 turns out to be 2,000-year-old Roman relic

Laura Young hit the jackpot during a Goodwill haul in 2018. Browsing through the Austin store, she found a dirty, dusty bust on the floor, under a table, for $34.99. Her find was like no other: it was an actual Roman bust from the 1st century B.C. that was part of a Bavarian king Ludwig I’s art collection that was looted during World War II. 

While it was unknown how it got to the Texas Goodwill, experts believe it was taken by an American soldier after the king’s villa in Pompeii was bombed in 1944 and 1945. After being in Young’s living room for the past three and a half years, the bust is now on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art until May 2023.

A marble bust was sold for $34.99 at a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas, in 2018. Turns out, it was an actual Roman bust from the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD.

How it got to Texas remains a mystery. https://t.co/j1uE7tgVf0 pic.twitter.com/yHl5EjKXOf

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 6, 2022

Young named the 52-pound marble bust “Dennis Reynolds,” after the T.V. show “It’s Always Sunni in Philadelphia.” She described the relic as a “a very difficult, cold, aloof, emotionless man that caused some problems for me.”

Young, a dealer of antique and vintage goods, said she knew the bust was valuable when she found it. “I got it outside in the light,” she said. “He had chips to the base. He had clear repairs. He looks old. I’ve been to museums. I’ve seen Roman portrait heads before.”

After searching on Google for “Roman busts,” and thought, “They look a lot like my guy.” Young proceeded to contact two auction houses, Sotheby’s and Bonhams, to confirm whether her hunch was right. She was. 

The relic was then authenticated by the Bavarian government. Despite the good news, she also found out that she could not sell the piece—like any Goodwill-goer dreams. Because the piece was likely stolen or traded, it did not make her the rightful owner. 

“Immediately, I was like, ‘OK, I cannot keep him, and I also cannot sell him,’” Young said. “It was extremely bittersweet, to say the least. But I only have control over what I can control, and art theft, looting during a war, is a war crime. I can’t be a party to it.”

Young agreed to return the relic to the Bavarian government next year in exchange for a “small finder’s fee.”

“We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we thought was lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful location,” Bernd Schreiber, president of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, said in a statement/