A woman bought a bust for $34.99 at a Goodwill in Texas. It turned out to be an ancient Roman artifact — and likely looted.
CBSN
An ancient Roman bust that went on display at a museum in San Antonio, Texas this week has a peculiar backstory: In 2018, the bust was bought at a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas. The buyer, Laura Young, was shopping for objects to resell and had no clue she picked up an artifact dating from the first century BC or AD.
The bust once resided inside a full-scale model of a house from Pompeii in Aschaffenburg, Germany, according to the San Antonio Museum of Art. The display, known as Pompejanum, was built by Ludwig I of Bavaria, and during World War II it was severely damaged by Allied bombers.
The sculpture had mysteriously disappeared after Aschaffenburg was targeted. The U.S. military remained in the area until the end of the Cold War and it is believed an American soldier had the bust and brought it back to Texas, the museum says.