BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - An online auction of some 90 items owned by the late football icon Diego Maradona has closed with a house and BMW unsold, but most other keepsakes spoken for, its organiser said on Tuesday (Jan 4).
The Dec 19 auction had been prolonged by several days after the most expensive pieces failed to attract buyers at first.
The initial, three-hour auction had brought in just US$26,000 (S$35,260) with more than US$1.4 million worth of assets owned by the former Barcelona and Napoli star receiving no bids, according to AFP calculations.
By the end of the new deadline, the Buenos Aires house Maradona had gifted his parents, put up for a minimum US$900,000, still did not find a buyer, nor did a luxury 2017 model BMW priced at US$225,000.
Another BMW, a 2016 model, sold for US$165,000.
"For the rest, we have received bids" in the second round, which will now be presented to a judge for approval, auctioneer Adrian Mercado of the Grupo Adrian Mercado Subastas house told AFP.
These included television sets, gym equipment and a treadmill.
The auction had attracted bidders from several Latin American countries, Italy, France, Britain, Russia and Dubai.
The largest single offer of US$2,150 on the first auction day was for a painting of the former World Cup winner by artist Lu Sedova.
The second most expensive piece was a photograph of Maradona with late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, purchased for US$1,600 by a buyer in Dubai.
Other items sold included a Napoli team jacket, training pants and a box of Cuban cigars.
Mercado said he was optimistic of selling an apartment Maradona had owned in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata (US$65,000), for which he was awaiting a formal offer.
He also hoped the second BMW will receive a bid in the coming days.
This would leave only the 700 sq m (7,500 sq ft) Buenos Aires house, on a property with 500 sq m of park, where Maradona's parents had lived for 30 years.
The sale had been ordered by a judge to pay the debts and expenses accrued by the estate of Maradona, who died of cardiac arrest on Nov 25, 2020, aged 60.
Just over a year later, his younger brother Hugo died in Naples at age 52 of a heart attack on Dec 28.
Serie A side Napoli said president Aurelio de Laurentiis and the team "come together around Maradona's family and unite with them in the pain of Hugo's death".
A former Argentine youth international midfielder, Hugo played in Italy, Austria, Spain, Argentina and Japan, before returning to Italy to settle there permanently and had a brief coaching career with amateur clubs in Naples.
Hugo Maradona, who had three children, recently ran on a right-wing list in municipal elections, which the left ultimately won.
He was signed by Napoli in 1987 - joining Diego - before being loaned to Ascoli. On Sept 20 that year, the two brothers played against each other with Diego's Napoli coming out on top 2-1.
