In what could be considered the Goodwill find of a lifetime, Laura Young purchased a Roman bust for $34.99 at a Goodwill store in Austin, Texas. It turned out that rather than a replica, the head was a genuine 2,000-year-old artifact. Once Young, an antiques dealer, started to look at the bust in the daylight she noticed signs of age in the sculpture, and suspected it might be valuable. And indeed, its ancient provenance was confirmed by an auction house.
The 52-lb bust's journey from ancient Rome to the Lone Star state remains somewhat of a mystery. It was traced to a 19th-century Bavarian king's art collection and was possibly taken by a US soldier after the king's villa was bombed in Germany by Allied forces during WWII.
Currently on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art, before it's repatriated back to Bavaria in 2023, it's believed the bust depicted Roman commander Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus. But before Young gave up the valuable find, she named it "Dennis Reynolds" after the narcissistic character on the long-running sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."