A builder bought the sculpture for £300. It's a baroque gem

The case was described, among others, by The Independent website.

A construction worker went to a warehouse for recycled building materials. He noticed a sculpture that the owners of the square wrongly classified as concrete. The man paid £300 for it. After inspection, however, it turned out that it was a Baroque gem from almost 300 years ago, made of marble and made by the famous sculptor Pietro Bracci.

Model of the Pope's monument

The sculpture, approximately 66 cm high, depicts Pope Clement XII Corsini. Bracci created it as a preparatory design for the monumental bronze statue that once stood in Palazzo Nuovo on the Roman Capitoline Hill.

The original bronze was moved and then melted down in 1798, during the existence of the Roman Republic. Before the current discovery, the only known depiction of the monument was an engraving by Stefano and Rocco Pozzi. This may be the only surviving model of this implementation.

The origin remains a mystery

The work was said to have come from a country estate in Hampshire, near Andover. It has been in the garden for probably half a century, so it is clearly damaged by weather conditions.

We don't know how it ended up in a garden in Hampshire, said Mark Yuan Richards, a specialist at the Woolley & Wallis auction house. He added that the sculpture could have come to Great Britain as a souvenir from an 18th-century journey through Europe or as a diplomatic gift.

Auction in October

The auction house Woolley & Wallis from Salisbury initially valued the object at PLN 10,000. pounds, but - due to interest from abroad and the rarity of Bracci's works on the market - he predicts that the price may increase up to PLN 100,000. pounds.

This is an incredibly exciting discovery, Richards emphasized.