[Bcma-l] CMA Clipping Service: War Medals Could Leave Canada
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca
Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:49:15 -0700
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<b>War medals could leave Canada</b></span></font>
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Aldo Santin, Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday, April 23, 2009</span></font>
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A part of Canada's military history could be sold to a foreign collector
next month when the First World War medals of former Winnipeg
resident Robert Shankland are put up for auction. </span></font>
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Shankland's medals, including the Victoria Cross and the
Distinguished Conduct Medal, will be auctioned off in Toronto on
May 25. He was awarded the Victoria Cross after leading his
outnumbered troops in battle against the Germans near the Belgian
town of Passchendale.</span></font>
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Bonhams Canada auction house estimates Shankland's nine medals
will fetch between $220,000 and $330,000 -- but that's probably low
considering a year ago in Australia a Victoria Cross and several other
medals sold for the equivalent of C$573,000.</span></font>
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The prospect Shankland's medals could leave the country, along with
his VC -- the British Commonwealth's highest award for gallantry in
battle -- has military buffs and politicians wringing their hands in
anguish.</span></font>
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"I think it would be a disaster," said Murray Burt, the secretary of the
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, the local militia regiment that
Shankland joined at the war's end.</span></font>
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Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson vowed earlier this week he
would do "whatever it takes" to prevent the "powerful and enduring
symbol" of gallantry from leaving the country. But there may be little
anyone can do to prevent the sale.</span></font>
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Robert Vandewater, a vice-president at CIBC Wood Gundy's
Winnipeg office and honorary lieutenant-colonel of the Cameron's
militia unit, said it's unlikely anyone with the regiment could come up
with the funds needed to buy the medals at auction. "I don't see what
we can do," Vandewater said. "We just don't have the resources</span></font>
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to do it."</span></font>
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The medals will be sought after by foreign investors, that's for certain.</span></font>
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"There is a great deal of interest from collectors around the world,"
said Jack Kerr-Wilson, the Bonhams specialist handling the auction.</span></font>
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"The Victoria Cross medals have a mystique... the heroism of the
people who earned them," Kerr-Wilson said. "The medals themselves
are wonderful objects but when you consider the reasons they were
given, they are clearly history... a history of the individual, the history
of valour that someone can summon under extreme duress."</span></font>
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Fundraising efforts have been initiated elsewhere to save military
medals, but local efforts might have more time than the date of next
month's auction would indicate.</span></font>
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Kerr-Wilson said that by law, a foreign buyer cannot remove a
military medal from the country without first securing an export
permit and all bidders have been notified of this.</span></font>
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Kerr-Wilson said if a successful foreign bidder is rejected for an
export permit, locals have six months to raise the necessary funds to
match the winning bid. However, if no one can match the winning bid
after six months, the Cultural Properties Act stipulates an export
permit must be given to the foreign buyer, Kerr-Wilson said.</span></font>
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It's assumed Shankland's medals have been put up for auction by his
family, but Kerr-Wilson said Bonhams' policy prevents him from
disclosing the identity of the seller.</span></font>
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Shankland returned to Winnipeg after the First World War and later
moved to Victoria and then Vancouver. After serving in the Second
World War, he returned to the West Coast. Bonhams' historical
records state Shankland's wife died in 1952. Shankland died in
Vancouver in 1968 at the age of 80.</span></font>
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Vandewater said the only real hope of keeping the medals in Canada
rests with the Canadian War Museum, which is the country's largest
repository for Canadian military medals. Museum spokesman Pierre
Leduc said they are aware of the auction but would not disclose if
they're preparing a bid.</span></font>
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