WOMAN’S CHARITY STORE PURCHASE IS 2 000 YEARS OLD

A woman from Texas bought a piece of art from a charity store only to find out that it’s part of German history and is almost 2 000 years old.

In 2018, Laura Young bought a marble bust weighing 50 pounds from Goodwill, a charity store in the Austin area.

Young told CNN that when she saw it, she knew she had to buy it.

“I was just looking for anything that looked interesting. It was a bargain at $35, there was no reason to buy it.”

Once she bought it, Young felt like she wanted to do some research to find out more about the piece of art. She contacted several auction houses and eventually, Sotheby’s came back to her with good news when they confirmed that the bust is from ancient Roman times and that they believed it to be about 2 000 years old.

CNN reports that a specialist was able to track down the bust on a digital database and found photos from the 1930s of the head in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, Germany.

It is believed to be the bust of the son of an ally of Julius Caesar named Pompey the Great. The bust is that of Sextus Pompey, a Roman military leader.

The bust was on display until the second world war. It wasn’t seen since then, so when Young bought it in 2018 it made headlines because it was the first time that it was seen in public again.

The bust is now on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art until May 2023.

Image credit: CNN