Massive Theft at the Marklin Museum in Germany

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

Of all the awful things to happen to our hobby is the theft of its history when burglers would make off with over a $1.3million in antique trains last night. The Marklin Museum site lists 6 pages of items stolen, some dating from the late 1800’s . There is a reward of at least $200,000. I am sure that the major auction houses would be notified as Christies in London has several Marklin sales per year.

2

that reminds me…my buddy has a huge HO marklin set that his father bought from a nazi at the end of ww2… many of the trains have a swatsticka-sp stamped on the bottom.
he said that they used tree bark for much of the scenery, and showed me a few samples, good looking stuff IMO…
we were working on his layout just the other week.

3

That really is sad. I would imagine that some of those trains probably can’t be replaced despite what it may be said that they were worth.

I would hope, though, that they would eventually make their way into the open market, where they would be uncovered. Unless the thief(s) had an interest in trains, they wouldn’t mean anything unless they were sold. As long as private collectors are aware of the theft, they should turn up somewhere, and hopefully the potential purchaser will turn them in.

4

Here is a link to Maerklin’s story (in German):
http://www.maerklin.de/museum/?redirect=diebstahl.html
and one to the “Liste der gestohlenen Artikel”:
http://www.maerklin.de/museum/diebstahl2.html

5

Looking at the list of stolen items, it looks like the thiefs left behind “Der Kondom Train” from 2004!

  • Lou
6

This is what I’m referring to in the previous post:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6742026/

  • Lou
7

This is horrible and very, very sad! Märklin all but created this hobby and their products represent important parts of the great history of toy trains. Many of the items stolen were one-of-a-kind pieces. They certainly would be too hot to put on the open marketplace without being noticed.

I think that there is one of two possibilities as to the motive behind this awful crime:

  1. A group of theives broke into the museum for the sole reason that it was filled with antiques that are very valuable and highly collectable in order to sell what they stole. They weren’t specifically interested in or knowledgeable about toy trains other than the fact that they’re worth a lot of money and just took items at random.

  2. This was a “made to order” crime. Someone hired theives to break into the Märklin Museum and most likely had a specific “shopping list” for them. This person could have been a crooked dealer or else a collector who just had to have these pieces and couldn’t get them anywhere else.

Of these two possibiities, I hope that it’s #1. It would be much easier to track down the trains this way. Unfortunately, I would guess that #2 is more likely. Some of the items stolen included some factory prototypes and an example of the very first train that Märklin ever produced in 1892. These would certainly be what a collector would go for first. This exact same type of thing happens all too often in the art world. Many famous paintings and other works of art have been stolen in this fashion. A collector wants a certain painting, he talks to a guy with “connections” and forks over some cash and the guy hires someone to take it. You can’t just go and steal a Picasso and expect to fence it at a pawn shop.

I’m still fathoming at how this crime could have taken place without being noticed at the time. You would think a place like the Märklin Museum would have a good security system. I can’t help but thinking that this was in some way and inside job