By Humberto Viera
05 Jun 2024, 20:39 PM EDT
French justice on Wednesday banned the sale of the 1986 World Cup Ballon d’Or, won by Diego Armando Maradona, and ordered its seizure until the dispute over its ownership is resolved.
The Parisian auction house Aguttes had planned to auction the trophy on June 6, which could have been a record sale for a sports memorabilia, but last Sunday they announced an indefinite suspension.
The Versailles Court of Appeal backed the lawsuit by Maradona’s heirs, who allege that the trophy, which reappeared in 2016 after missing for almost three decades, was stolen from a bank safe in Naples in 1989.
“We are satisfied with this decision, which responds to our demands and reassures my clients. Within three months, we will present the pertinent allegations to resolve the litigation,” Gilles Moreu, lawyer for Maradona’s five heirs, told EFE: Diego Armando Maradona Sinagra, Dalma and Gianinna Maradona, Jana Maradona and Diego Fernando Maradona.
Moreu anticipates a “long legal battle” until it is determined who owns the trophy, as there are both criminal and civil proceedings.
Before the Maradona appeal, Abdelhamid B. was considered the legal owner of the trophy in France, since he bought it in good faith (without knowing that it was the Ballon d’Or) and because three years passed without the Maradona family claiming it. .
Abdelhamid B. had bought the trophy for 1.20 euros at a second-rate auction in Paris and could have sold it at Aguttes for more than 10 million euros, according to the auction house’s estimates.
The seizure of the Ballon d’Or, an unusual measure, seeks to prevent the trophy from disappearing again.
The object, currently in the possession of Aguttes, will be handed over to a judicial officer who will guard it until the dispute over its ownership is resolved.
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