GOODWILL SHOPPING...Hunting to do The Right Thing

Intro: It's a short well worth your curiosity with these few excerpts.  

SPOLER ALERT: There's a happy ending when an antique stone bust was looted by an American soldier after the Allied Bombing of Germany during World War II and rightfully returned to the original owner

 

Goodwill Sold a Bust for $34.99. It’s an Ancient Roman Relic.

Its 2,000-year journey to Texas remains a mystery, but the buyer is returning it to the German state of Bavaria, its pre-World War II home.

A Roman bust, determined to be from the late 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D., still had a price sticker on its right cheek — $34.99 — as its new owner drove it home from a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas.Credit...Laura Young

By Michael Levenson

May 6, 2022

Laura Young was browsing through a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas, in 2018 when she found a bust for sale. It was resting on the floor, under a table, and had a yellow price tag slapped on its cheek: $34.99. She bought it.

Turns out, it wasn’t just another heavy stone curio suitable for plunking in the garden. It was an actual Roman bust from the late 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D., which had been part of a Bavarian king’s art collection from the 19th century until it was looted during World War II.

How it got to Texas remains a mystery. But the most likely path suggests it was taken by an American soldier after the Bavarian king’s villa in Germany was bombed by Allied forces.