A $6 marble sculpture that is used as a doormat could soon become extremely valuable at auction.
The French sculptor Edmé Bouchardon’s bust might fetch over $3 million at auction after a Scottish local government agency suggested selling it.
More than 200 years after it was created, the bust was purchased for £5 ($6) in 1930 by Highland Council, who currently owns the sculpture. Years passed before a local councilwoman discovered it in a Highlands industrial park in 1998, propping up a shed door, according to the BBC.
According to Highland Council, Invergordon Town Council bought the sculpture of Highland landowner Sir John Gordon since it was thought that he was the town’s founder.
The council claims that the artwork was worth more than $3 million earlier this year.
The bust was scheduled to be displayed after it was discovered, but because of the security hazards involved and the fact that Bouchardon sculptures have become much more valuable since then, it has been stored instead.
Highland Council called for community feedback on the plan to sell the bust in January and stated that any revenues would go towards funding the Invergordon Common Good Fund, which supports community-benefitting initiatives.
Following earlier disputes over who owned the sculpture and the opinion of art historians that it should be preserved for Scotland, the BBC revealed that in October 2023, a private foreign bidder had made the council an offer of more than $3 million for the bust.
The bust was formerly on exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Louvre in Paris.
