Christie's Showroom will release, as part of a virtual auction, the boots with which Messi managed the record amount of goals scored for the same club (644) with Barcelona. The proceeds will be put towards the 'Art and Health' programme of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona.
According to what the Showroom have released in a memo, Messi has donated his boots to the 'Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya' (MNAC) as well as deciding to offer them as part of a charity auction for the 'Art and Health' programme of the Barcelona hospital.
The auction will be celebrated at www.christies.com between the 19th and 30th of April 2021. In the announcement, the Barca striker commented that "reaching the record of scoring 644 goals with the same club makes me very happy, however I feel it's even more important to be able to help the sick children who they are fighting for to try and cure."
"We hope that this auction will help to give greater visibility to this extraordinary initiative. I would like to thank everyone for their help to this cause, which is so important to me," the Barca player added.
Christie's representative in Spain, María García Yelo, highlighted "Christie's satisfaction for having chosen Lionel Messi and MNAC to be able to carry out this charity auction" and she has faith that "this pair of football boots will arouse an enormous amount of interest and will attract bidders from all around the world".
The Adidas Nemeziz Messi 19.1 boots, which the player wore in the match between Barcelona and Real Valladolid on 22nd Decemeber, are signed "Lionel Messi" and are personalised with the names of his wife "Antonela Roccuzzo" and his three sons "Thiago, Mateo and Ciro" as well as their dates of birth.
The auction house has estimated that the boots will sell for between 57,500 and 80,500 euros. MNAC's director, Pepe Serra, has stressed that "the Vall d'Hebron Hospital and the Museum have worked together for over three years in the study of the therapeutic benefits obtained through art".
"The funds raised in this auction, thanks to the generosity of Mr. Messi, will allow art teachers and investigators to widen the objectives of these therapies and give them greater success, and for this we would like to thank Mr. Messi for his generosity and support", Serra concluded.