There is a well-known difference between the price and the value of a work of art. For example, if you look at what the works of former Wall Street broker Jeff Koons are bringing in, you can’t be mad if you find their price far exceeds their value. It’s exactly the opposite with children’s drawings: for all the grandmothers of this world, the touching scrawl of their grandchildren is so valuable that not even a Jeff Koons Prize could outweigh it.
And then there are those cases where the true value of a work of art is only revealed after the purchase. This includes the marble bust that the American Laura Young bought in August 2018 in a second-hand shop in Austin, Texas. According to CNN she immediately felt that the purchase was a bargain – she shelled out 35 dollars for the venerable head. However, after she consulted the experts at the auction house Sotheby’s to find out who the stone portrait head represented, she found out two things: firstly, that it was the Roman general Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius and secondly, that it was a real one, a good 2000 years old ancient sculpture.
It was originally exhibited in the so-called Pompejanum, a replica of a Roman villa in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. The work of art survived the bombing of the house in World War II in a storage facility, but was probably stolen from there between the end of the war and 1950 and finally ended up in Austin. It is currently on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art. In a year she should return to Germany. And that after all these decades that will actually happen is simply priceless.
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