After a federal judge ordered former New York mayor and Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to turn over his Manhattan apartment and other valuable possessions to two Georgia election workers Tuesday as part of a $148 million defamation judgment, a spotlight has been cast upon some of the contents of his collection.
Among the collectors' items listed in the ruling, according to CNN, are watches given to Giuliani by European leaders in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, a 1980 Mercedes formerly owned by Lauren Bacall and sports memorabilia, including a signed Joe DiMaggio jersey.
There’s also the matter of Giuliani’s four Yankees World Series rings, which his son, Andrew, has claimed are rightfully his after receiving them as a gift from his father.
In a legal filing attempting to stop the defamation suit from including the rings, the younger Giuliani claimed he had been given the rings in 2018.: “As a child and young adult, I had spent many nights with my father watching Yankees games and bonding over our love for the team, and I was excited about receiving the rings.”
A well-known face at Yankee Stadium for years during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Giuliani’s ownership of the rings came under scrutiny in 2007, when he campaigned for president. A report published in the Village Voice delved into the murky circumstances in which he came to obtain the rings, generally restricted to players and team personnel.
The rings were valued by experts, including baseball historian Jerry McNeal, as worth around $200,000 collectively, the Voice reported.
Given the unusual nature of a mayor receiving World Series rings, the investigation sought to uncover the timeline transactions through which Giuliani came into their custody, reporting he “paid $13,500 for his 1998, 1999, and 2000 rings, and in 2004, he paid $2,500 for his 1996 ring.”
This total of $16,000 for all four rings was confirmed by the Yankees to the Voice at the time, however, the team had a different timeline, saying the payments came “years after he left office.”
With Giuliani a potential presidential nominee at the time, his inscribed name was seen as a value-add to the rings. McNeal said if he were elected president, the rings “would skyrocket in value.”
A New York Times piece published a week after the Village Voice’s drew connections between Giuliani’s involvement with the team, both as a committed fan, as well as in his role in his official capacity.
While the Yankees told the Times he paid the “team cost,” and Giuliani said he “paid precisely what anyone else would pay,” the answers were short of satisfactory.
“Actually, he could not have paid what anyone else would pay because the team does not sell the rings to anyone,” Times journalist Jim Dwyer concluded.
As for the current value of the rings, Giuliani listed three of them as a portion of a $30,000 estimated jewelry collection, which also included "expensive watches," during a bankruptcy attempt earlier this year, according to ABC News.
However, based on recent available public sales, it would appear the rings are a good bit more valuable than advertised. A 1996 Yankees World Series ring presented to Hector Lopez, who had coached in the Yankees system the prior year but not during the 1996 season, sold for more than $10,000 in 2018.
Considering Giuliani’s name recognition, as well as the boost provided by owning a complete set of four, it would be reasonable to assume the rings would be valued far beyond the stated value in his bankruptcy filing, closer to six-figures.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.