+
Education

A woman's $34 Goodwill bargain buy ends up being a priceless ancient Roman artifact

A woman's $34 Goodwill bargain buy ends up being a priceless ancient Roman artifact
Photo by Daniel Robert on Unsplash
human male statue

Ah, the Goodwill. Thrifting has become even more part of American culture since Macklemore’s mega hit “Thrift Shop” was released 10 years ago. You can find just about anything you want, from formal dresses to large furniture items and antiques. Walking out of a thrift store with goodies haphazardly thrown into crinkled recycled plastic bags makes you feel like you’ve just struck the jackpot, but for one woman, a jackpot is exactly what she struck. In 2018, art collector, Laura Young of Austin, Texas, was doing her usual thrift store run to look for hidden gems when she stumbled across a sculpture. The sculpture caught her eye, especially since she looks for undervalued or rare art pieces while thrifting. The sculpture was a steal at $34.99, so taking it home was a no-brainer.


She strapped the bust into her car seat with the seat belt. Safety first, even for old heavy sculptures of heads. After getting a closer look at the dirty sculpture, she realized that the bust looked quite old and this piqued her interest enough to start searching for where it could’ve come from. After rescuing the bust, Young consulted with experts in art history at the University of Texas at Austin and experts at auction houses around the country over the next couple of years.


To Laura’s delight and surprise she finally found an answer. Jörg Deterling, a consultant for Sotheby’s a fine arts brokerage, identified the bust as one that was in a German museum decades ago before putting her in touch with the German authorities. As luck would have it, the art collector had unwittingly bought a sculpture from the late first century B.C. to early first century A.D. You really can’t make this stuff up. The bust likely depicts a son of Pompey the Great. Yes, that Pompey, the one that was defeated by Julius Caesar. At least that’s what the museum believes, on the other hand The Art Newspaper reported that the bust is believed to be Roman commander Drusus Germanicus.

Either way, the bust is old and existed in a time where someone had to pose for a ridiculously long amount of time while someone else chipped away at rock to memorialize their face. The ancient bust once belonged to King Ludwig I of Bavaria who lived from 1786-1868. It was part of a full scale model he built of the house of Pompeii, called the Pompejanum, in Aschaffenburg, Germany, where it stood for nearly 200 years. The full-scale model was severely damaged in WWII by Allied bombers.

No one’s quite sure how the bust made its way from Rome to Germany and then shoved under the table at an Austin, Texas Goodwill, but it sure makes for an incredible story. Whether the bust is the son of Pompey or if it’s commander Drusus, it’s back in a place where it can be honored and cared for—a museum. The Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces agreed to the bust staying at the San Antonio Museum of Art until May 21, 2023, before it makes its way back to Germany.

Photo courtesy of CARE.org
True

You may be surprised to learn the following facts about the leading cause of death worldwide:

  1. It affects women far more than men
  2. It’s a completely preventable problem
  3. It’s hunger.
Keep ReadingShow less

Seth Rogen on stage during the opening night of Collision 2019 at Enercare Center in Toronto, Canada.

Childless women in the public eye are often plagued by the question: “So, why don’t you have any children?” It’s a deeply personal question that cuts right to the bone, and there can be many answers. But, if the woman doesn’t want children and says so publicly, she is bound to face some judgment.

"[I don't] like [the pressure] that people put on me, on women—that you've failed yourself as a female because you haven't procreated. I don't think it's fair," Jennifer Aniston told Allure. "You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn't mean you aren't mothering—dogs, friends, friends' children."

On the Monday, March 6 episode of “The Diary Of A CEO” podcast, host Steven Bartlett asked actor Seth Rogen about why he’s childless, and it was a rare moment where a man in the public eye was challenged on the topic. Rogen gave a thoughtful explanation for his and Lauren Miller’s decision to be child-free.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

62-year-old rocks the same outfits as her 23-year-old daughter to show that 'style has no age'

Gym Tan is a bona fide TikTok star with her fashion choices. She hopes it inspires others her age to shine.

@californiaistoocasual/TikTok

"Style has no age."

It feels like a safe bet to say that the phrase “fashion influencer on TikTok” instantly conveys an image of a young 20-something posting their latest shopping haul.

But just take it from 62-year-old fashionista Gym Tan—flair belongs to everyone, and it doesn’t have an expiration date.

As she shared in an article for Insider, Tan worked for around three decades in the fashion industry and had a genuine love for it. However, after moving from her home in Hong Kong to what she calls “casual California," Tan put her career—and her passion—to the side.

Thanks to some encouragement from her 23-year-old daughter, Mya, Tan began posting videos of her “classic, understated” outfits to TikTok. At first, it was nothing more than a fun creative outlet. Little did either of them know that Tan would become an instant viral sensation.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Lyft driver's hilarious menu of 10 different types of ride options is pure genius

All Uber and Lyft drivers should have a ride options menu.

Cameron the creative Lyft driver offers a variety of ride options to his passengers.

Have you ever ridden in an Uber or a Lyft and had the driver talk a lot when you felt like being quiet? Or not say a word when you tried to make conversation? Or play music you found annoying?

When you hop into a driver's car, it's a crapshoot what kind of ride you're going to have. But at least one Lyft driver is removing the mystery a bit by letting passengers choose.

Facebook user Eric Alper shared a post that showed a photo of a piece of paper stuck on the back of a car's headrest that read:

"Welcome to Cameron's car!!!"

Keep ReadingShow less
Parenting

A soon-to-be dad asked for the best parts of having kids. Parents delivered with heartwarming joy.

He was tired of only hearing about how his life would soon be over and how he'd never sleep again.

Baby giggles are one of the best things about parenthood.

The dizzying preparation stage of soon-to-be-parenthood can be a little daunting. Everyone and their grandma—literally—bombards you with congratulations, advice and doomsday-like predictions about how your life is about to change.

People try to prepare you for parenthood by sharing horror stories or warning you about how hard it's going to be with the best of intentions. Parenting can be tough, and going into it with overly rose-colored glasses can lead to some painful reality checks. But too many jokes about never sleeping again or anecdotes about toddler tantrums can also dampen what should be a joyful time of anticipation and excitement and make parenting sound like a total drag, which it's not.

That's why soon-to-be-dad Harris Fanaroff took to Twitter to ask parents what they really love about raising kids.

"I’m tired of hearing the…'You’ll never sleep again' 'Your travel life is over' 'Say goodbye to your weekends,'" Fanaroff wrote. "My first baby is joining us in the next 3 weeks and I’m excited, nervous, anxious, and grateful. I’d love to hear your favorite parts of having a newborn/baby/kids."

Keep ReadingShow less

There is no place in the multiverse where Jamie Lee Curtis is a night owl.

Sure, we early birds get the worm. But you know what we miss out on? Dancing at clubs. Laughing at comedy shows. Having a social life beyond anything brunch related, more or less.

I think I speak for all of us early risers when I say that we’d kill to go to certain events that our night owl friends partake in, if only it were when the sun was still shining and our energy levels were still high. We’re fun, we promise. But once the PJs are on…there’s just no going back, ya know?

Fear not, morning people. We have a new champion. And her name is Jamie Lee Curtis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Over 300,000 people from 192 countries filmed their life on July 25, 2020. The highlight reel is incredible.

"Life in a Day" is like a home movie of humanity that illustrates our diversity, yet also shows how very much alike we are.

The "Life in a Day'" documentary gives us a glimpse of daily life around the world in the early months of the pandemic.

Despite our tumultuous history of conflict over our differences, there is far more that unites humanity than divides us. We are wholly unique individuals who share various group identities, but at the end of the day, we are all simply human.

Nothing makes that fact clearer than peeking into the daily lives of people all over the world—seeing how we all connect with our families and friends, how we enjoy the outdoors, how we take care of ourselves and others, how we create our livelihoods and more. But few people are able to travel extensively enough to see those things firsthand.

That's where the YouTube Original "Life in a Day" comes in.

The original "Life in a Day" video project was crowdsourced from ordinary people around the world who filmed their lives on July 24, 2010. From the 80,000 clips sent in, a filmmaking team under the direction of Kevin Macdonald, Tegan Bukowski, and Loressa Clisby pieced together an award-winning documentary.

Then, when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, MacDonald decided to revisit the idea to capture the experience we were sharing as a global community. Only this time, more than 300,000 people from 192 countries sent in their day-in-the-life films from July 25, 2020 to contribute to the project.

Keep ReadingShow less