Auction of late Pope's car tied up in court

CHICAGO - The only car Pope John Paul 2 ever owned has not been a blessing for a father and son whose fight over the impending auction of the humble sedan is now in court.

The powder blue, four-door 1975 Ford Escort is expected to go for as much as US$5 million ($7.08 million) but Jerome Rich says his son Jim has no right to sell it.

Jim Rich obtained the keys to the car from the pontiff himself a decade ago after purchasing it through an Indiana auction house for US$102,000, said lawyer Wade Joyner, who represents Jerome Rich.

Jim Rich put the car on display under glass at his suburban Chicago restaurant but the establishment closed a year ago. He has said he now wants to auction the car on June 5 at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas to pay off debts owed his father.

In court papers, Jerome Rich said his son illegally spirited the car out of the restaurant and back to Kruse International, the same Auburn, Indiana, car museum and auction house where Jim originally bought it. The father says the restaurant's contents belong to him since he guaranteed millions of dollars of his son's loans.

Jerome Rich, an automobile fancier, would like to put the pope's car in his own garage for private viewings before deciding what to do with it.

The Indiana auctioneer who has the car, Dean Kruse, believes the Escort could fetch US$5 million at auction because the pope put nearly all the 96,000km on it himself.

Joyner said he will return to an Illinois courtroom later this week to ask a judge for a temporary restraining order to block the auction.

The car's value was enhanced because the pontiff, who died last month, ordered most of his personal possessions destroyed, Kruse said on his website.

The pope's foundation had given the car to Kruse's auction house in 1996 to sell to raise money for some of John Paul's favoured charities.

Earlier this month, the Volkswagen Golf once owned by Pope Benedict sold for US$244,800 in a frenzied online auction.

- REUTERS