Priceless antique bust found in thrift shop to return to Germany

A woman bought a marble bust for $35 in a thrift shop in Texas. It turned out to be an invaluable antique that has been traced back — and will be returned — to Germany.

A priceless find in a goodwill shop

The Bavarian Palace Administration, the largest public authority responsible for museums in Germany, told DW in an email that they are overjoyed "at the rediscovery of a piece of Bavarian history that was thought to have been lost."

In August 2018, a woman bought a marble bust that weighs about 25 kilograms (55 pounds) in a thrift store in Austin, Texas. She paid just under $35, she recently told The New York Times. She resells interesting objects, so she researched this one, too, and sent photos to various auction houses.

Sotheby's answered with surprising information. According to the auction house, the bust dates back to Roman antiquity and is about 2,000 years old. An employee found photos in a digital database showing it in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, in the 1930s.

From a legal point of view, the bust is still the property of Germany.

During World War II, it was stored with other artifacts as the Pompejanum, the replica of a Roman villa in the city of Aschaffenburg where the bust was exhibited, was heavily damaged by bombs. Presumably, US soldiers stationed in Germany later brought the bust to America.

Pompejanum in Aschaffenburg, rebuilt after World War II

Displayed in Aschaffenburg as early as 1850

Modeled after Sextus Pompeius, a military leader and son of an ally of Julius Caesar, the bust is on show for a year at the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) before it returns to Germany's Pompejanum, where it was first displayed in 1850.

King Ludwig I had the replica of a house in Pompeii built from 1840 to 1848 to study ancient culture. After the Second World War, the museum was restored in the 1960s.