Specially Made Car Cost Over $250,000
Pope Francis was on Wednesday gifted a custom-made Lamborghini Huracán, delivered to him at the Vatican by the luxury car maker’s executives. The pontiff, however, does not intend to keep the flashy car. It will instead be auctioned, with the proceeds going to a number of charities.
Why Did The Pope Get A Lamborghini?[/tweetthis]
The white Huracán is designed with gold lines running along its hood. On receiving the gift, Pope Francis immediately blessed and autographed it. The vehicle, first introduced in March 2014 at the Geneva Auto Show typically fetches around $250,000 in the regular market. This personalized edition of the vehicle, complete with the Pope’s signature is however expected to rake in much more.
Pope Francis is generally known to prefer modest means of transportation, often shunning luxurious, more secure vehicles for his small, black FIAT 500. The 80-year-old pontiff who hails from Argentina was also known to get around his hometown of Buenos Aires using public transport.
It will be put up for auction at Sotheby’s in London. The money raised from the sale will go towards assisting three main causes – assisting human trafficking victims, missionary work in the African continent and resettling Christians who fled their homes in Iraq on the back of ISIS attacks.
More than 3,000 Christians were forced to flee from their households and businesses, as the terror group perpetrated atrocities in their bid to take over the city of Mosul. Captives would be killed unless they converted to Islam or paid a tax imposed on non-Muslims, jizya. The Vatican said that money from the sale of the Lamborghini will go towards “allowing displaced Christians to finally return to their roots and recover their dignity.”
Pope Francis has a history of offering automobiles for auction, having sold a high-end Harley Davidson motorcycle for charity in 2014. He also had three Navy Blues Volkswagen Golf cars that he had used in Poland last year, all with personalized license plates, auctioned to help Syrian refugees.