In other words, there is a chain of stores in North America called Goodwill.
This is a non-profit charitable organization that provides employment opportunities for some special people with employment difficulties by selling second-hand old goods donated by well-wishers.
In addition to buying some bargains in second-hand stores, shopping here is also a kind of charity.
(Goodwill's flawed employees)
In 2018, Laura Young, a woman from Texas, usa, came to goodwill and stumbled upon a marble bust weighing about 50 pounds.
Supposedly, Laura wouldn't have needed the statue at all.
But she was going to buy something fun, and such a large statue was only $35, which was very cheap.
So Laura didn't think much about it and directly paid for it.
(Laura put the statue in the car and brought it home))
After buying the statue, Laura daydreamed like every ordinary person who bought an old product: "How nice would it be if this thing were a wandering work of art..."
So she was in a mood to try it out and contacted the experts of the auction house for identification.
Amazingly, daydreams really come true!
This statue is really an antique, and its origin is not ordinary.
Experts have found the origin of the statue through a photograph of the Pompeianum Palace in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany, in the 1930s.
Experts told her that the statue was from ancient Roman times and was about 2,000 years old.
The statue is a bust of the Roman military leader, Sykesto Pompey the Younger, whose father was Pompey the Great and an ally of Julius Caesar.
In the 1840s, King Ludwig I of Bavaria commissioned craftsmen to build a villa dedicated to the collection of works of art, the Pompeyanum Palace, which was decorated with various frescoes, works of art and ancient Roman artifacts, including this statue.
However, during World War II, the exhibition hall of Pom Peyanoom Palace was blown up, and the whereabouts of the sculpture have been unknown ever since, until now Laura has found it...
Experts say it may have been before the bombing that people hid a batch of artifacts in the warehouse.
In the 1950s, American soldiers stationed there inadvertently got the statue and moved it back to the United States, where it is now in Laura's hands...
The origin of the sculpture is already clear.
It's not as valuable as other famous artifacts, but as a 2,000-year-old statue, experts estimate Laura could make at least a few hundred thousand dollars.
But Laura eventually decided to give it back to Germany.
The statue is currently on display at a local museum, and by 2023 the bust will be sent back to Germany and back to Pom Peyanum Palace for display again.
Of course, Laura did not get nothing, and the German government gave her a certain amount of thanks in order to thank Laura.
The specific amount is confidential, but according to the speculation of netizens, according to German law, it should be between 10% and 20% of the actual price of this statue, which is about tens of thousands of dollars...
"Under German law, those who turn in their artifacts will be rewarded. According to the value estimate, the reward amount is between 10%-20% of its market value. ”
There are many stories of finding treasures in the thrift store, but like Laura, she has done charity, satisfied her own curiosity shopping hobby, and finally can make a sum of money, which is a proper koi physique...
In fact, there are many luckier people than her, "casually" can find a priceless treasure...
In 1991, a man named Terry spent $5 at a thrift store and bought a large, colorful canvas as a gift for a friend, but the friend didn't like it.
She and her friends couldn't put such a big canvas at home, so they had to sell the paintings.
As a result, a passing art teacher discovered that the painting might be a work of art by The Master of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock.
After the appraisal, the value of the painting rose from $5 to $50 million.
About 20 years ago, artist Lodge bought two boxes of glass-panel photographic negatives for $45 at a second-hand store.
At first he only thought the scenery on the negatives was beautiful, but then he found that it seemed to be the work of the famous landscape photographer, Ansel Adams.
Dozens of professionals, including former FBI agents, note-taking experts, meteorologists, and more, conducted the identification, and they finally determined that it was Adams' work, and the price of the two boxes of glass-plate photographic negatives rose to $200 million.
In 2014, a French homeowner opened a closed attic due to a leaking roof and accidentally found a painting during repairs.
After identification, this is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, worth $136 million.
This luck is really admirable...