A woman bought a sculpture at Goodwill for $34.99. It actually was a missing ancient Roman bust.

An ancient Roman bust from around the first century that had been missing for decades has finally made its way into the San Antonio Museum of Art, and all it took was for one artist to buy it from a Texas Goodwill for under $40.

Laura Young, an art collector, stumbled upon a sculpture on the floor beneath a table at a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas. Young told The Art Newspaper that she bought the piece for $34.99 and took a picture of it in her car with a price tag on it.

Young wanted to find out where the bust came from after she noticed it was old and worn. Young consulted with experts in art history at the University of Texas at Austin and those at auction houses across the United States looking for answers.

The bust was identified as a piece that was once in a German museum by a consultant for the fine arts broker.

The museum believes the sculpture depicts a son of Pompey the Great who was defeated in the civil war by Julius Caesar, while The Art Newspaper says the bust is of a Roman commander.

King Ludwig I of Bavaria lived from 1786 to 1868 and built a full-scale model of a house from Pompeii, called the Pompejanum, in Aschaffenburg, Germany. The model was damaged during World War II.

The museum doesn't know how the bust ended up at the Austin Goodwill, but it's possible that a Texas soldier took it before returning home.

It is a great story that includes the World War II-era, international diplomacy, art of the ancient Mediterranean, thrift shop sleuthing, historic Bavarian royalty, and the thoughtful stewardship of those who care for and preserve the arts, whether as individuals or institutions.

The Roman bust will be on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art from now until May 21, 2023, as part of an agreement with the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes. It will return to Germany after that.

Young said she was excited to discover the bust's origins, but added that she couldn't keep or sell it.

She said she was glad she was a small part of the long and complicated history and he looked great in the house.

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