210, Lot: 425. Estimate $150. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi). 1775-1799. Æ Medal (39mm, 21.73 g, 12h). Dated year 21 (1795/6). PIVS · SEXTVS PONT · MAX · A · XXI, bust right, wearing zucchetta, mozzetta, and pallium / Pius seated right on throne, receiving priests driven from France; above, CLERO · GALLIA · PVLSO/HOSPIT · ET · ALIM ·/PRAEBITA in three lines. Mazio 536; Lincoln 1992; Patrignani 83. Superb EF.

From the Luparello Collection.

Economic and political upheaval dominated the later part of Pius VI’s pontificate, a native of Cesena. In 1791, he condemned the establishment of France’s state church and later lost its northern provinces to the French. In 1798, French forces marched upon Rome and captured the pope, holding him prisoner in Drôme until his death six weeks later. Though embalmed, he was not buried until early in 1800 in an effort by Napoleon to warm the relations between France and the Catholic Church. Ultimately, his body was removed from its burial place in Valance and reburied at Rome.