The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 51, December 19, 2004, Article 7

WEISMULLER OLYMPIC MEDAL RETURNED TO RANSACKED MUSEUM 

  On December 15, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published a
  story revealing that the International Swimming Hall of 
  Fame's extensive Olympic collection had been looted of 
  over $500,000 worth of rare medals:

  "A man with a secret past who landed a temporary job as a
  janitor at the International Swimming Hall of Fame wasted 
  little time before stealing more than 100 Olympic medals 
  and other irreplaceable memorabilia, police said Wednesday.

  Paul Nichols Christow, 48, had unfettered access to the 
  museum's impressive Olympic collection when no one else 
  was around. He stole nearly $500,000 worth of gold, silver 
  and bronze, police said. Among the loot was Hollywood star 
  Johnny Weismuller's 1924 medals, a medal from the first 
  modern Olympic games and an ancient Greek medal.

  The Hall of Fame's collection was so large that he operated
  undetected for months.

  Early this month, a museum worker noticed some medals 
  missing from a display case. About the same time, an 
  Olympic memorabilia collector contacted the Hall of Fame 
  to say he had just purchased a group of medals on the 
  Internet. Police traced the theft to Christow, set up a 
  sting, caught him on tape trying to sell more Olympic 
  goods, and arrested him last week.

  Investigators recovered about half of what was stolen 
  and are hopeful they will find the rest."

  "He posed as a paralegal looking to liquidate an anonymous
  family's estate. Marty Bookston, of Double Eagle Rare Coins
  in Hollywood, had never seen a real Olympic medal before, 
  but he gave the man $250 for two medals and posted them on
  eBay for an opening bid of $9.99 apiece."

  Those knowledgeable about the value of such medals can
  only gasp at the opening bid - later just one of a group of
  50 medals was sold to a California collector for $10,000.
  The article goes on to describe how alert eBay users notified
  the museum about medals it didn't know were missing.  Police
  enlisted the help of the Hollywood, FL coin dealer and a
  North Carolina collector to snare the thief in a sting
  operation.

  "Christow was charged with two counts of dealing in stolen
  property and two counts of grand theft over $100,000.

  "I grew up with Johnny Weismuller on TV," said Gerry 
  Machurick, the burglary detective who worked the case, 
  "so to be a part of preserving history is pretty 
  incredible."

  Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum