ATTENTION – Philippe Gillain collection stolen!

UPDATE - stolen collection:

Here is a part from a mail from mr. Gillain about the situation. I think it is needed to have patience at this moment:
I ask you all to understand what is going on at this moment! What needs to be done, needs to be done. So show some
respect.


Priority now is inquiry;
investigators have closed the first step before sending results to the national Belgian police, in Liège and Brussels. Now the matter starts to be international;
I have to check all items, one per one, in my files to be sure of those stolen (as quite some was sold just before in the last months). I have 5060 items to check;
I am meeting Webmasters and graphics to realize a Website where I will be able to show all my (stolen) interesting or rare items. I try to find all of what has been stolen in my......100.000 pictures-files;

be patient and tell contacts and forums it takes lots of research and energy before all is done;

I hope the collectors-world altogether, will help me to find my collection…
Philippe Gillain
 
This really is sad news. Wasn't there any alarm installed or video coverage of the rooms, entrance, surroundings,... of the house? This must be a terrible blow for the owner of this collection! Reading this one should consider to install an alarm to protect a lifetime of collecting! Hope he can recuperate his collection, but as some of you already stated : this must have been a robbery on demand by people who already new where the robbed items had to go to... :sneaky2:

That IS a good suggestion! Install GPS trackers on some of the most expensive devices in your collection! I will consider doing this!
 
horrific news,:crying:
some people do not have any respect and cannot comprehend the time, effort and sacrifices one make to get a collection together, wether it is big or small. We do not have all a big wallet, so yes for some people it takes a lifeto get something together that has somesignificant size. I Do not know the person wich has been stolen and I have not see, to my knowledge, any publication of his enormous collection as I may understood it was humangeous.
I can only hope, altough but a small confort, the collection was insured....? But this means we all should be take this in consideration wich means again less money to spent for the collection itself.
I dare not to think this would one day happen to me.

Sad day for all of us, my sympathie and condoleances

Mike
:belgium
 
Hello Mike,

you soon can see some of the material which is stolen, as one is making
a special website for it. I will inform the forum about this.

The main problem at the moment is to sort out what was sold before the
theft and what actually has been stolen.
Small wallet or big does not make a difference. The person from who the
collection was stolen, collected for 50 or more years.
 
Very sad and shocking thread.
I hope the thief is found soon and Mr. Gillain will get his collection again.

Schorsch :germany
 
PS: members of the HJ-forum, please check the website the coming days or week as more will follow, like signs and such..........., but it is needed to be "airborne"!!
If you have information see at the end of the announcement for contact. Please do not bother with all kinds of questions!!

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HELP TO FIND STOLEN COLLECTION
€500 - €1.000 - €100.000 REWARD

Help me to find the stolen items of one of the most important European collections.
Between September 8 and 11, 2017 one of the largest and most important collections of German WWII historical artifacts was stolen. This collection included headgear, uniforms, flags, banners and pennants, brocades and belt buckles, cuff titles and armbands, gorgets, enameled and cardboard signs, NS toy figures and for example thousands of III Reich period cloth and metal insignia. Besides the considerable financial loss of the vanished collection and above all 50 years of collecting and research, it gives me the feeling of “total emptiness”. I do approach the collecting community and all of those familiar with the world of militaria and military-shows. Please help me in tracing the stolen items.
A new website: “Stolen Items WWII” (www.stolenitemsww2.com) will show pictures and descriptions of the most important, representative or unique pieces. Swastikas can be censored. With the actual items they are untouched. Please keep your eyes (and ears) wide open for any abnormal item offered to you or coming on the market. Spread this message to your collecting friends and dealers to avoid this happen to you too.

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I do offer a reward between €500 and €1.000 for each “rare” item that will be found (see the word “Rare” written in the description of items of the website).
To the one, who gives the golden tip to find the entire collection, I do offer a reward of € 100.000.

Thanks in advance for your indispensable help: Philippe Gillain

If you have information, please contact me at museum@phg.be
 

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Thank you for the link to the site. Many very unique items. If many of these items are in the market they will be easy to spot. Keep an eagle eye out and hope that something surfaces that will start the trail leading to the culprits.
 
Thank you for the link to the site. Many very unique items. If many of these items are in the market they will be easy to spot. Keep an eagle eye out and hope that something surfaces that will start the trail leading to the culprits.

The website shows the rarer items. I think it would be impossible to show all,
as the collection did include some 5,000 items. As I told before in an older
post the HJ/Napola/Students-section included over 600 pieces (mainly triangles,
and shoulder-straps, but pennants, headgear and cloth insignia as well) just for
these organizations.
 
it's been over 4 years since the theft - and still none of the items have surfaced?
 
It's heartbreaking for Philippe, his collection never resurfaced because I remain convinced that it is with a very great collector who knew what to find to complete his own collection.
 
It is very annoying and I hope that at some point this crime will be exposed. A life's work was torn from him and I am full of compassion.
 
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