ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A piece of Tampa Bay Buccaneers history sold for over a million dollars at a recent charity auction in new jersey.

What You Need To Know

  • A Bay area auctioneer facilitated the $1.2 million sale of Tom Brady's Buccaneers jersey when he threw his 700th career passing touchdown

  • Gabriel Butu has lived in St. Petersburg for a couple years now and travels across the country to auctioneer different charity galas

  • He does about 30 to 40 charity events a year, including a local gala for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay

Tom Brady’s Bucs jersey that he wore when he threw his 700th career touchdown pass was bought for $1.2 million in New Jersey on Sept. 30.

What makes this story even more interesting is that the auctioneer that oversaw the bidding lives in the Bay area.

Art, in one way or another, has been a part of Gabriel Butu’s life ever since he could remember.

He credits his upbringing to help him find his place in the world.

“My mother, who used to bring me to galleries and ballet and classical concerts and opera, and I used to hate her for it; sitting for three hours watching Mozart’s, you know, Marriage of Figaro,” Butu said when showing some of his artwork around his home.

But that hate became love and affection over the years, to the point where it takes a lot for him to not spend loads of money to buy art pieces for his house in St. Pete.

“It’s an exercise in self-control, but I think we’re getting there,” Butu said.

And getting there perfectly describes Butu’s career path and how he wound up being the auctioneer that sold Brady’s jersey when the legendary quarterback threw his 700th career passing touchdown for the Bucs.

“No one’s ever reached that before,” Butu said.

For Butu, his life is full of surprises.

His mom is Irish, and his dad is Romanian.

He grew up in the Netherlands but, because he went to a British international school, somehow has a British accent.

“When I tell people I’m Irish, they’re like, ‘You’re English, mate,’” Butu said. “I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not really English.’”

Growing up, he wanted to go into finance but realized it wasn’t his thing when he got an internship at a hedge fund.

“I didn’t actually like the finance or all that stuff,” he said. “I realized I like the shouting at people to get money out of them.”

His realization began a long winding road that eventually ended with him becoming an auctioneer for numerous charities across the country.

Most weekends, he’ll fly to wherever a charity is having a gala, and he will be sort of an emcee/auctioneer for events where he promotes the auction of art pieces and memorabilia to help raise money for some important causes.

“Once you’ve tasted that,” Butu said, “it’s just that’s what you want to do.”

Which is what landed him in Atlantic City on Sept. 30.

He was auctioneering a gala for Reform Alliance, a nonprofit co-founded by Jay-Z that raises money to transform probation and parole laws, where Brady — who was in attendance, along with celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kevin Hart — gave his game-worn jersey to be sold.

It was bought for $1.1 million.

“He’s the greatest of all time,” Butu said. “So having an element of what that means on your wall, I think, is huge. And for me to just be able to be the conductor for that energy, I mean, it’s a nice feeling.”

Because he knows what having something special on your wall means to collectors, especially because he lives in the Bay area.

“You’re buying a piece of history,” Butu said. “It’s something, almost, you know, it’s got a soul to it.”

It’s that bit of soul that he says he likes to bring into his auctioneering to make a prized item priceless.