Great excitement

Auction of Maradona’s Golden Ball stopped

Following a lawsuit by Diego Maradona's heirs, the auction of a trophy belonging to the Argentinian soccer legend has been halted in France for the time being!

A court in Versailles ordered on Wednesday that the "Golden Ball" be confiscated until the ownership situation is clarified, the French sports newspaper "L "Équipe" reported on Tuesday. Maradona was awarded the trophy as the best player at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

The trophy was originally due to go under the hammer these days at the Aguttes auction house in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. It could have fetched several million euros.

Buyer could not be considered a bona fide purchaser
The trophy had been missing for 35 years and was stolen from Maradona's safe deposit box in a bank in Naples in 1989. In 2016, a collector bought it with a number of other trophies for a few hundred euros without initially knowing what it was. It was only later that the authenticity of the Golden Ball was established by two experts.

Two of Maradona's daughters recently filed claims to the trophy and have now had the auction stopped by the courts. In view of the circumstances, the buyer could not be considered a bona fide purchaser, said the heiresses' lawyer, Gilles Moreu. The Central Office for Combating the Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods (OCBC) has opened an investigation.