Imagine that!
Italian expert on ancient stone and marble Dario Del Bufalo found a long-lost priceless Roman mosaic through a book signing in New York in 2013. His book, Porphyry, included a discussion about the particular art piece and a photo of it. Del Bufalo then overheard a man and a woman talking about she had the mosaic featured on the page. “There was a lady with a young guy with a strange hat that came to the table,” Del Bufalo told CBS. “And he told her, ‘What a beautiful book. Oh, Helen, look, that’s your mosaic.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, that’s my mosaic.’”
The expert then proceeded to trace the current owner of the mosaic, Helen Fioratti. The art dealer and gallery owner bought the item from an Italian noble family in the 1960s and then proceeded to use it as a coffee table for 45 years. Learn more about the mosaic here!
Image credit: Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images via The Guardian