On Sunday, a virtual auction of around 90 things belonging to late football legend Diego Maradona failed to draw any major buyers, with a coastal apartment, two BMWs, and the house he bought for his parents among the larger items that did not sell.
According to the event’s organizers, more than 1,500 potential bidders from Latin America, Italy, France, England, Russia, and Dubai had signed up to participate.
However, according to AFP figures, sales totaled barely $26,000 at the end of the three-hour event, leaving more than $1.4 million in assets unbid on.
The artwork of the world-class footballer, “Between Fiorito and the Sky,” by artist Lu Sedova, received the highest bid of the morning. It was purchased for $2,150.
A image of Maradona with late Cuban leader Fidel Castro was then purchased for $1,600 by a Dubai customer.
“Auctions are like that — you don’t know the outcome until it’s over,” remarked auctioneer Adrian Mercado after the sale. “We had high hopes, but the reality is that nothing is ever certain.”
The most expensive goods were a $900,000 property in Buenos Aires that a young Maradona bought for his parents and a $65,000 flat in the beach town of Mar del Plata.
Two hardly driven BMW automobiles, a 2017 model valued at $225,000 and a 2016 model priced at $165,000, as well as a Hyundai van valued at $38,000, remained unsold.
A painting of Marilyn Monroe sold for $1,500 to an Argentine bidder; a team jacket from Naples with his famous number 10 on the back sold for $1,500 to a Dubai admirer; someone in Germany paid $270 for training pants Maradona wore with Borussia Dortmund; and a box of Cuban cigars sold for $550 to another Argentine bidder.
But neither his six television sets nor the exercise equipment he used in Dubai piqued his curiosity.
Judge Luciana Tedesco authorized the auction to cover the debts and expenses incurred by Maradona’s estate, which died of heart death on November 25, 2020.
The court must now decide what to do with the objects that were not sold.
