Stolen Items from the Philippe Gillain Collection

This gentleman's advanced collection of WWII German militaria was stolen from his personal museum in Belgium during early September. He has developed the web site linked below to host images of his items in hope that some might be recovered. He is continuously updating the site, adding photographs of various items and is offering cash rewards for information.

Hard to imagine what he has been through in losing his life's work in the hobby. I can't suffer a thief .....

https://www.stolenitemsww2.com

That was a big theft of high grade and high dollar items. Some I'd never seen before.

IMHO, contract "hit" theft. Probably for a private "shopper".

What a terrible waste. I agree with Hambone, that stuff has been stolen and moved to someone's private collection, not to be sold off. One day it will be known....people talk.

A shame, but a small blessing that he was not at home when "they" came.
People who have "the balls" to pull off something like this, are the kind that don`t think twice about taking you out.
It happened to a Militaria dealer in 2005, Ingo. The robbers took his collection, and killed him and his wife.
And in 1993 there was also a German Militaria dealer killed, Eberhard Bröll.

There is no chance that the high end stuff will end up for sale any time soon. In all probability a contract theft.
All we can do is "keep em peeled."

At least the number of suspects is confined to a small sector of collectors and is probably known by the victim, which is an advantage for the police. A friend had an un-opened box of original .44 Henry ammunition stolen from his table at Tulsa a few years back and the obvious culprit is a shady dealer from Europe who was set up in close proximity but even if caught with the goods, establishing ownership would be difficult for the victim. Although the promoter claimed it was done by the public, at a Louisville show about twenty years ago some valuable NS items disappeared overnight from different tables, including at least one rare dagger, a para helmet, and an entire case of medals and badges. The dealer from England with the medals was set up near me and they were there on his table when when we covered-up and left for the night but gone in the morning. Those guys were irate! But again, without detailed pictures the thief can claim they were his. Hopefully the missing items from Paul's collection are all well photographed.

I would agree that it was most probably a custom theft. There is always a chance that one of the crooks that participated may talk at some point. On the other hand sometimes those folks are simply liquidated. Regardless, it reminds one of the contract thefts of art or other treasures.