Pope skullcap to go on sale in Sweden
The Local/ms - [email protected]
Published: 16 Oct, 2014 CET.
Updated: Thu 16 Oct 2014 09:42 CET
A skullcap owned by Pope Francis will be auctioned in Stockholm in December, with the proceeds given to Romani charities.
Scandinavian fine art and antique auction house Bukowskis, has announced it is putting the headdress on sale after it was donated by the Pope via a Swedish friend. That friend is Carlos Luna, who lives in Båstad in Skåne in southern Sweden. He met Pope Frances in Argentina in the 1960s and later moved to Sweden as a political refugee. Luna now travels the world teaching Qigong, an ancient Chinese practice that combines breathing, meditation and martial arts techniques. The pair have stayed friends for more than 40 years. "We’ve always worked towards the same goals but from opposite ends," Luna told The Local. He said that when he told Pope Francis about the rising numbers of Roma people living in poverty in Sweden, the pontiff offered to donate a skullcap to help raise money for their plight. "I didn’t convince him, it was his idea to donate the skullcap". Bukowskis has confirmed to The Local that the headdress will go up for auction on either December 4th or 5th 2014. We are delighted and excited that this happening at Bukowskis, said press spokesperson Paulina Sokolow. "We hope that news of this remarkable gesture from the Pope will travel around the world, both to encourage people to bid and to inspire others to realize that there's hope if people help each other." Last month an an Italian TV show coaxed Pope Francis into handing over another white skull cap. After going on eBay it raised around a million kronor ($130,000), which was given to an Italian charity fighting child mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Pope Francis has repeatedly called on the Roman Catholic Church and national governments to do more to help people out of poverty and has sought to live more modestly than his predecessors at the Vatican.
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Scandinavian fine art and antique auction house Bukowskis, has announced it is putting the headdress on sale after it was donated by the Pope via a Swedish friend.
That friend is Carlos Luna, who lives in Båstad in Skåne in southern Sweden. He met Pope Frances in Argentina in the 1960s and later moved to Sweden as a political refugee.
Luna now travels the world teaching Qigong, an ancient Chinese practice that combines breathing, meditation and martial arts techniques.
The pair have stayed friends for more than 40 years.
"We’ve always worked towards the same goals but from opposite ends," Luna told The Local.
He said that when he told Pope Francis about the rising numbers of Roma people living in poverty in Sweden, the pontiff offered to donate a skullcap to help raise money for their plight.
"I didn’t convince him, it was his idea to donate the skullcap".
Bukowskis has confirmed to The Local that the headdress will go up for auction on either December 4th or 5th 2014.
We are delighted and excited that this happening at Bukowskis, said press spokesperson Paulina Sokolow.
"We hope that news of this remarkable gesture from the Pope will travel around the world, both to encourage people to bid and to inspire others to realize that there's hope if people help each other."
Last month an an Italian TV show coaxed Pope Francis into handing over another white skull cap. After going on eBay it raised around a million kronor ($130,000), which was given to an Italian charity fighting child mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Pope Francis has repeatedly called on the Roman Catholic Church and national governments to do more to help people out of poverty and has sought to live more modestly than his predecessors at the Vatican.
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