Medals and similar awards are stolen for resale, private collection or ransom; some are destroyed for gold bullion.
While not common in developed nations, reported instances have drawn wide press coverage, considering notability and public exposure of the victims of the crime.
[3] On January 15, 2009, about 30 valuable medals belonging to a Chilliwack, British Columbia Odd Fellows lodge were stolen.
The prosecution, allegedly supervised by Yuri Andropov, connected Kalinins to another murder and 38 other cases of medal theft.
[11] In November 2006 Russian government agency requested Sotheby's to halt an upcoming sale of 11 Soviet military awards presumed to be stolen.
[citation needed] December 23, 1999, thieves stole the collection of Michel da Vincha, a French citizen and notable collector living in Moscow, which included rare awards of the Russian Empire.
The previous crime wave peaked between 2003 and 2006;[11] most public cases include: The most famous stolen military medal in the United Kingdom is the Chelengk awarded by the Ottoman Empire to Lord Nelson.
In 1985, Kay Miller's Nobel medal for ‘International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War’ was stolen and recovered.
[28] The Nobel Peace Prize medal won by one of the founding fathers of the modern Labour Party, Arthur Henderson, has been stolen in a £150,000 raid at the Lord Mayor's office in Newcastle on 3 April 2013.
[30][31] December 2, 2007, thieves stole 11 war medals from the QEII Army Memorial Museum in New Zealand.