Tom Brady’s missing Super Bowl jersey is worth S$710,000

NEW YORK - How much is that missing Tom Brady Super Bowl jersey worth, anyway?

According to the official police report, US$500,000 (S$710,000).

The jersey Brady wore in the game vanished in the aftermath of the Super Bowl, leading to a deluge of press attention and a promise from the Texas lieutenant governor that the state would do all it could to recover it.

The report by the Houston police lists the jersey as stolen property in the category “shirt/blouse/T-shirt.” That is followed by an eye-opening figure under “value”: US$500,000. The amount is pertinent because, as the report notes, $US300,000 or more makes the potential crime a first-degree felony.

Houston police told TMZ that the figure was determined by the complainant - Brady, “or one of his people.”

Tom Brady is listed on the report as the complainant, and his vitals of 6 feet 4 inches (1.84m) and 225 pounds (102kg)are duly noted.

A Houston police department spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

The report tersely describes the apparent theft: “Shortly after winning the game, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady noticed his game jersey missing from his locker in the Patriots’ designated locker room.”

“Those are special ones to keep, you know, but what can you do?” Brady said of the jersey the day after the game and the theft.

How realistic is the US$500,000 figure? A jersey with that provenance might be worth half that, Josh Evans of the auction website Lelands.com told USA Today. But the notoriety over the theft might increase its value to $1 million, he said.

Of course, the publicity over the theft would make the jersey almost impossible to sell. No auction house would accept it for sale, and private buyers might be dubious about its authenticity and concerned about its resale value.

The “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 (a “national scandal of the first magnitude,” The New York Times said). But what could the thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, do with it? Two years later, he was arrested in Florence trying to sell the painting - for 500,000 lira.

It may not be a hallowed masterpiece, but perhaps Brady’s jersey is destined to turn up someday in the same way. THE NEW YORK TIMES