£300 salvage-yard marble turns out to be pope by Baroque sculptor Bracci

A £300 buy from a salvage yard in the United Kingdom has been identified as a lost marble portrait of Pope Clement XII.

ARTnews reported the find on 1 October 2026, describing the maker as a Late Baroque master. A follow-up note identified the work as a rare maquette by Pietro Bracci, the 18th-century Baroque sculptor.

A maquette is a small model made to test a design for a full-size statue. This one shows Clement XII and was made in the 18th century, according to ARTnews. It stands two feet tall, artnet reported on 30 September 2026.

The carving is in Italian marble and is 290 years old. That is a long time to sit unrecognised among second-hand stone and garden ornaments.

The vendor paid £300 for the piece at a yard, according to the Antiques Trade Gazette. The same report said the rediscovered marble is to be offered for sale in Salisbury, in southern England. Provenance, the documented chain of ownership, is the part that salvage finds almost never come with.

The auction expectation is £10,000, about $13,300. artnet reported that figure. On that maths, the £300 outlay would be multiplied more than 30 times if the bidding gets there.

Estimates are not prices. An estimate is the auction house's published guide for where bidding might land. The hammer price, the bid the auctioneer closes on, plus fees, is what a buyer actually pays.

What makes this stand out is how ordinary the start was. A yard buy. A heavy piece of marble. Then a closer look at the carving, the face and the handling of the drapery, pointed back to Bracci and to an 18th-century papal commission.

For anyone who follows a good find, the next step is simple. The maquette goes to auction in Salisbury. The room will decide whether the £300 gamble becomes a collection piece.