Cannot resist to post this article dated Nov. 1998 Sorry for the length).
Interesting to notice that already in 1967 (!!), the Ministry of Culture instructed all museums to display only models of the awards, and keep the actual orders and medals in special depositories.
And for the fun, the market value of the Order of Victory !!!
Article published in Moscow News, on November 19, 1998 (!!)
STOLEN VALOR by Yevgeni Sergeyev
"Military regalia has been disappearing from museum display cases for some 30 years, often reappearing in antiquarians' collections abroad. The first time law enforcement agencies encountered the problem of major thefts of orders and medals was in 1967, when some 10 Marshal Timoshenko awards were stolen from the Museum of the Revolution.
During the day, a Moscow college student hid behind a column inside the museum, and later that night he broke into one of the display cases and stole the collection of the famous military commander's regalia. The story caused a huge sensation in the higher echelons of power, and some of the best investigators from the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department (MUR) were enlisted in a search that ended two days later with the arrest of the thief. The student was nabbed at a Moscow market just as he was trying to sell the goods.
As a result of this incident, in the same year the Ministry of Culture instructed all museums to display only models of the awards, and keep the actual orders and medals in special depositories.
Mints began producing high-class fakes made of aluminum, a special monetary alloy (zinc and tin) and bronze, which did indeed help save the collections. One former head of the Ministry of Culture recounted how in 1986, during the Ferghana exhibition "We are Soviet People," thieves stole all of the 40-odd duplicates on display.
The awards were replaced in only a few weeks, and the exhibition continued its tour throughout the country.
In Soviet times, museum collections of orders and medals were
replenished by emigrants and deceased military bosses. According to the rules that existed back then, after an important general died, all of his awards were given over to the museums. People who emigrated from the Soviet Union also had to leave their awards behind in the country. But with the dawn of perestroika, many relatives of high-ranking figures categorically refused to give the awards over to the museums for free, and most of them ended up going to private collectors. In 1985, the son of a famous general who fought in World War II offered to sell his father's orders and medals to the Museum of the Revolution for 5,000 rubles. But the museum couldn't come up with that much money, so, according to some sources, almost all of the awards ended up going to antique collectors.
But by no means did all of the regalia wind up in collectors' hands
"voluntarily." According to investigators, in the early 1980s,
several gangs of thieves appeared in Russia, plundering the awards of the generals and their families. Very often their actions
involved bloodshed, one of the most notorious incidents being the murder of Admiral Kholostyakov in Moscow. It all started when a young married couple managed to worm its way into the admiral's confidence: Having introduced themselves as museum workers, they managed to win the admiral's favor and became frequent guests at his apartment. This friendship ended with the criminals hacking the old man to death with an ax and stealing all of his awards.
The couple was soon arrested by MUR investigators. The Ministry
of Culture's subsequent recommendation to all military bosses and their relatives not to let people introducing themselves as
museum workers into their homes did little to save the regalia
owners, many of whom were tricked out of their valuable awards by people passing themselves off as directors of all kinds of
exhibitions.
One of the most able museum fraudsters is considered to be a man named Alexander Karmanov. Karmanov began his criminal activity in the late 1980s. Back then, he succeeded in cheating several families of famous military bosses out of their awards in one fell swoop. He would introduce himself as an employee of a major museum and request rarities for his exhibitions. In this way, he managed to get his hands on more than 90 orders and medals, including the awards of Marshal Kozhedub, General Luchinsky and Admiral Gorshkov.
It was only after the regalia was discovered in the collection of
a famous American antique collector, who had asked the relatives
to send him a full-length photograph of Marshal Kozhedub in uniform wearing all the regalia, that the people realized that they had been cheated. Enraged, the relatives contacted the police. Karmanov was sentenced to three years in jail, but in 1997 he was released on an amnesty.
Upon his release, the swindler immediately registered a "Museum
of Military History" under his wife's name, and, after fabricating
some identification stating that he was the director of the
museum, once again began paying visits to the families of military
bosses. With his air of respectability, Karmanov would tell them
that he was organizing an exhibition on Poklonnaya Gora dedicated to the undeservedly forgotten heroes of the country, and asked the people to give some sort of rare items for the exposition. It wasn't long before the swindler managed to gain the trust of the families of people like Brezhnev, Budyonny and Zhukov. He was rearrested last March and investigators discovered over a dozen rare awards in his possession, including five Hero of the Soviet Union Stars that once belonged to Brezhnev, an Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and an Order of Nakhimov. During questioning, Karmanov admitted that he had been planning to send all of the awards abroad.
In 1996, officials from the 9th division of the MUR solved yet
another major regalia-related crime. In 1995, collector Mikhail
Selivanov had over 100 awards, estimated at $ 3 million, stolen
from his apartment. The collection included badges for Valiant
Military Service in the Russian Army dating from the 17th to the
early 20th centuries and the Soviet era, the most valuable being
the Orders of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, Ushakov, Kutuzov, an Order of
World War II, 1st Class, and one of the earliest Orders of the Red Banner of Combat. The stolen regalia was later discovered in the possession of a resident of the Tula region. As in the case with Karmanov, the criminal had been planning to sell the collection to the West. He was arrested just as he was negotiating with a foreign diplomat.
The foreign antique market is the main buyer of Soviet orders
and medals. Right now, the cheapest of the most valuable awards - a medal commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army - costs from $ 3,000 to $ 5,000, and the most expensive - the Order of Victory, decorated with rubies and diamonds - sells for up to $ 2 million at auctions.
MN FILE Military regalia (both from the tsarist and Soviet eras)
has long become a regular commodity on the markets. The awards are bought, sold and traded by people who appreciate these types of rarities. The value of the orders and medals varies
depending on the number of surviving specimens and the amount
of precious metals and stones in them.
Approximate prices for Soviet-era medals and orders are as follows:
Order of Victory - $ 2 million
Order of Ushakov, 1st Class - $ 25,000
Order of Nakhimov, 1st Class - $ 10,000
Order of Kutuzov, 1st Class - $ 6,000-$ 8,000
Orders of Glory - $ 7,500
Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union - $ 650-$ 2,500
Order of Lenin - $ 700-$ 900
Order of World War II, 1st Class - $ 200
Order of the Red Star - $ 100."
Ch.
