--- title: Pope Francis White Skull Cap on eBay description: Italian TV show Le Iene got the Pope to swap caps canonical: https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-19T16:01:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:20.587Z og:title: Pope Francis White Skull Cap on eBay og:description: Italian TV show Le Iene got the Pope to swap caps og:url: https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e83e6a61948898/6986a459d0b6f20fa730631a/455715616.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pope Francis gives a speech during the International Meeting of Pastoral Care project " Evangelii Gaudium "at the Vatican, on September 19, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pope Francis White Skull Cap on eBay twitter:description: Italian TV show Le Iene got the Pope to swap caps twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e83e6a61948898/6986a459d0b6f20fa730631a/455715616.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White Skull Cap Worn by Pope Francis Is Now on eBay  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 19, 2014 4:01 PM UTC  Pope Francis gives a speech during the International Meeting of Pastoral Care project "Evangelii Gaudium" at the Vatican, on September 19, 2014. Pope Francis gives a speech during the International Meeting of Pastoral Care project "Evangelii Gaudium" at the Vatican, on September 19, 2014.Andreas Solaro—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 19, 2014 4:01 PM UTC Pope Francis’s white skull cap is up for auction on eBay and bidding is already up to €100,050 (about $130,000) so far. The satirical Italian TV show _Le Iene_ (which means “hyenas” in English) went up to Pope Francis as he boarded his jeep in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City and offered him a new white cap in exchange for his old one, [AFP reports](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/18/pope-francis-skull-cap-ebay). The Pope agreed to the switch, and his old cap was posted [on eBay](http://www.ebay.it/itm/111465997086) Wednesday evening. Within 24 hours it had already attracted a bid of over €100,000. According to AFP, the proceeds of the sale will go to an Italian charity fighting child mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are 128 bids so far. Bidding closes September 24. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/"},"headline":"White Skull Cap Worn by Pope Francis Is Now on eBay","datePublished":"2014-09-19T16:01:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:20.587Z","description":"Thanks to a satirical Italian TV show","url":"https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/","keywords":["Newsfeed","World"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e83e6a61948898/6986a459d0b6f20fa730631a/455715616.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12e83e6a61948898/6986a459d0b6f20fa730631a/455715616.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis gives a speech during the International Meeting of Pastoral Care project \" Evangelii Gaudium \"at the Vatican, on September 19, 2014.","caption":"Pope Francis gives a speech during the International Meeting of Pastoral Care project \" Evangelii Gaudium \"at the Vatican, on September 19, 2014.","creditText":"Andreas Solaro—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3403792/pope-francis-white-skull-cap-ebay/","name":"White Skull Cap Worn by Pope Francis Is Now on eBay"}}]}] ```