Sold For $18,750
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Official Rawlings Major League (Manfred) baseball signed in black felt tip on a side panel by Pope Francis, "Francisco." In very fine condition.
Provenance: The Randy L. Kaplan Collection of Signed Baseballs from World Leaders and Heads of State. Kaplan started collecting baseballs signed by world leaders beginning in the 1990s, and has assembled a unique collection of over 450 examples. Over the years he has sought out such autographs through in-person meetings, book signings, and via diplomatic avenues. The collection has been exhibited at several presidential libraries across the nation, including those of Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, Lyndon B. Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Richard Nixon. The collection was also featured on HBO's Vice News and hundreds of other media outlets across the globe, including the New York Times. His goal is to someday have it exhibited at the United Nations, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Accompanied by the black box in which the baseball was shipped from the Vatican to the United States, address labels clipped from the package, two sets of rosary beads that were included, a Vatican coin sent to Kaplan in his quest to obtain the pope's autograph, and four small glossy photos of Pope Francis with printed signatures. Also includes a packet of correspondence between Kaplan and Vatican offices regarding his efforts to obtain baseballs signed by Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI, including a 2017 letter from Cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, regarding a mishap in signing, in part: "Regretfully, I opened the boxes with the baseballs before reading your message. Not knowing they were from you, I signed them before reading your letter with instructions to have the Popes sign the two baseballs. Sorry about the oversight, If you have other baseballs, kindly send them." The Turkson-signed baseballs are not included in the lot.
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