The sale of the “golden ball” obtained by Diego Maradona in 1986, scheduled for early June in France, must be frozen, argued the lawyers of the heirs of the legendary Argentine footballer, believing that the trophy found by an antique dealer is theirs by right.
According to the five heirs, the trophy rewarding the best player of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, given to their father in November of the same year at the Parisian cabaret du Lido, was stolen during a bank robbery in October 1989 in Naples.
The player’s family only discovered a few weeks ago that he was to be auctioned on June 6 during a sale held in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris.
She immediately took legal action urgently to try to get her hands back on it.
“The family is intended to recover this ball, the Argentine people are intended to recover this ball,” thundered Me Lola Chunet, one of the family’s lawyers, at the Nanterre judicial court.
“Trying, thirty-five years after an alleged theft, to claim property without ever having filed a complaint, is an opportunistic approach that justice cannot condone,” replied Me Arthur Gaulier, on behalf of the auction organizers.
Lawyers for the Aguttes auction house and the trophy seller said Thursday that the Maradona family had not provided proof of a complaint filed at the time.
In a press release, Maximilien Aguttes, director of the eponymous house, recalled that one of the “legends” circulating about the award says that Maradona forgot it at the Lido the very evening of the award.
The former gallery owner and antiques dealer says he acquired it at an auction in 2016 “in the same hardware lot” made up of hundreds of trophies, most of which had little value, before realizing after his purchase that one of the pieces could be Maradona’s “golden ball”.
During his research to prove its authenticity, he contacted one of the footballer’s lawyers, assured Me Le Bihan.
The court decision will be made on May 30 to find out if the June 6 sale can take place.
