Is This My Goodwill Museum Piece?
by Katy on March 20, 2025 · 27 comments
I love nothing more than news stories where people thrift priceless artwork, especially when the provenance is legal and they’re allowed to keep/sell their treasures. Remember when a Texas woman thrifted a Roman bust that turned out to be looted from WWII?
Yah, it had to be repatriated.
Just yesterday I came across a man carrying his own small sculpture and I shouted out, “Hey, The Thinker!” which caused him to yell back “Do you want it?” Which is how I ended up recreating the above photo.
Except, my priceless Rodin sculpture is decidedly off center. First off it’s made of plaster, and second off — he appears to be shoving his fist into his mouth, which I’m pretty sure was not the artist’s intent.
I happen to have a pair of quality antique bronze Thinker bookends and his fist is definitely making contact with his chin, not the tonsils.
See?
Note the difference:
I guess this isn’t my moment to sweep the news cycle with my found treasure. Oh well, at least the price was right!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
“Miracle at St. Anna” by James McBride is an awesome book about the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy in WWII. They were all Black Americans, racism made their mission harder, they persevered, and one extra strong guy sort of casually carried around the head of a renaissance sculpture that he found on the ground in Florence. I saw that photo, too, and thought about thrifted treasures I found along the way. No Italian masterpieces though. Yet.
Your “Thinker” is seriously considering that he should never comment on a post again.
I was offered a piece once, as an antiques expert. I said to the unknowing sellers, “No, this is worth a lot of money; you need to take it to the museum and get it properly valued.” Museum took one look and bought it for about $150,000 at auction.
I later found out it was a fake, but there it sits still in the museum, with the provenance being the collection of someone who doesn’t exist.
Rose, your stories and Lindsey’s keep me coming back for more. You both are great at giving us lots of info, but not all, leaving us with more questions than we started with. Great story! “the provenance being the collection of someone who doesn’t exist”
The forgers pretended that it came from their sister, now conveniently dead. In fact, I gave evidence to the Scottish police that helped get them in jail.
And yet, the museum says the piece is genuine and was bought by the nonexistent sister. Presumably to save face.
Truthfully sometimes I wish I’d just bought it and kept it. Being ethical gets you nowhere in life! heh.
This is sort of a summary of frugal things from last year. I had a pretty good idea of how much we added to our income with the mystery shop side gig, as well as the freebies that we got from those shops (mostly grocery food, restaurant meals, gas, postage when I needed to send gifts or eBay sales, lube jobs, and convenience store items. We don’t live near many of the franchise restaurants or casino shops, which can be very lucrative if you want a weekend away). However, last night we finished our taxes so I have exact numbers. I thought people might be interested in what is possible, keeping in mind that how much you make partly depends on how much competition there is for shops in your area and how large your nearby town/city is.
Shops Total cash, usually paid via PayPal: $5,397.53
Freebies: $3782.79
Gift certificates from Receipt Hog, My Points, Receipt Pal, and Fetch: $362.50
Fuel points cashed in from Fred Meyer and Safeway: $1447.52
Money saved with coupons: $733.00 (Usually when the grocery stores have something like $10 back from a $50 purchase, or the coupons for 20% off your groceries for every vaccine you get at Safeway. This was our year for vaccines, with flu, RSV, and shingles, so we made out well with these.)
I do the bulk of the shops, but the husband does gas, electronic and cell shops. Some weeks we spend 15 hours on them, some weeks 3 hours. We also expend some money, in the form of mileage, but that is tax deductible. I hope this helps someone decide if this side gig is for them.
Lindsey, that is an amazing amount. I love hearing about all your mystery shops. I’ve only done a few and I can see how it would be time consuming.
Lindsey, I mystery shopped from 2014-2023 (and will still do a shop now and then). My highest grossing year I made $5,100 and that pretty much part time.
I think prices paid are higher where I live because when I travel in the Lower 48, I sometimes look up shops to see if I can pick up a gas or restaurant shop on the fly and the prices paid are often lower. When I started I took anything to get a track record, but now I am pretty particular so do only more high paying ones. But if someone is really tight on funds and needs some immediate relief, I can see doing it part time. I do it for fun money, so doing so much that it became part time would not interest me.
Squirrel some of it away – you might need it for travel costs to the lone Social Security office in Alaska.
Katy, I think your thinker is pretty cool but I like your bookends better.
My best Goodwill find ever is my pedestal leg, seats 8 dining table, priced at $50, but bought on half price day.
My most fun story is seeing an original painting and recognizing the style and signature as that of my friend’s sister, a professional illustrator. I bought it for my friend, thinking she would be delighted. It turns out that she donated it.
The oddest thing I have ever seen in a Goodwill is a “goat drenching” kit. I had to look up that one.
The illustrator’s artwork…so funny!
When I lived in another town, our church group would go out to eat after services. We’d usually end up at a restaurant in the same strip mall as a Goodwill. One of our friends was a hairdresser and he’d often lead a group of us to browse the “GW Boutique,” as we called it. I think he coined the term and the rest of us picked it up. He always found amazing-looking vintage clothing, which he wore. One week, about this time of year, Jamie found a large canvas artwork. It was obviously used for a Mardi Gras celebration because it contained vivid colors of green, purple and gold. It was 3-D and had a beautiful woman’s face, a Mardi Gras mask and some beads, IIRC. He bought it on the spot and took it to his salon. Which was in a 100-year-old house; he rented an entire bedroom for his hairdressing station, and he could decorate it however he wanted. So he painted all the walls to match the background of this artwork, hung the artwork and it looked sensational. Like a beautiful, mysterious 18th Century noblewoman walking out through the wall and coming to be pampered at his station. Moral to the story: even if it’s not an incredibly rare and valuable piece of art, the stuff you buy at the GW Boutique is amazing.
What a grand and vivid picture you have painted about your friend the hair dresser and his creativity.
Katy, that poor fellow needed to be adopted by a frugal wizard: he’s literally hand to mouth and has no clothes — he needs help! 😀
My favorite picture I thrifted years ago from Goodwill no longer has glass. I’m just too cheap to have glass put in
In honor of the first day of Spring I did a closet fling
Every closet, drawers, nook and cranny has been purged.
In anticipation of no longer working my very part time job. I wanted to know what if any purchases I might need to make. I’ll probably need bras and a great pair of athletic shoes. I listed multiple items on line including multiples of skin care: I only have one face.
I think he looks like he just got a cut on his hand and is doing the human equivalent of licking his wound. 😉
Gross.
This one is The OVER-Thinker
I too have a quality antique bronze “The Thinker” bookends which I inherited from an Uncle. I have always appreciated that he wanted me to have them.
Man Bites Fist. Hmm, not exactly a classic. Well done, you!
So, a random person was carrying a random fist biter, and he gave it to you?
He was unloading stuff from a truck.
Not the thinker … the chewer!
Or the “don’t let me blurt out what I’m thinking.”
Slightly different from foot in mouth, though! LOL