https://www.stripes.com/news/europe...-15-000-at-german-auction-house-1.631610

AUSTIN, Texas – A German auction house sold a U.S. Medal of Honor on Thursday at triple the expected price after Sen. Ted Cruz called for the sale to be stopped.

Hermann Historica, an auction house in Munich, Germany, expected to take in about $5,000 for the medal, which was awarded to Army Pvt. Thomas Kelly for his actions during the Spanish-American War. Instead, the medal sold for nearly $15,500, said Bernhard Pacher, the managing director of Hermann Historica, which specializes in military-related items.

“People appreciate these things,” Pacher said, adding he doesn’t understand why Cruz finds selling the medals disrespectful. Most buyers spend the money on the items because they hold them in high regard, he said.

On Tuesday, Cruz, R-Texas, wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking for him to intervene in the sale. The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award and selling military medals awarded by Congress is illegal in the United States. Federal law authorizes fines of up to $100,000 and a year in jail.


A day later, Joe Daniels, president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum, joined Cruz in his efforts by writing to a number of U.S. federal government officials to stop the sale.

The person who owns it wants to sell it.

The person with $15,500 wants to buy it.

It's nobody else's business.

What Bristoe said............. Why couldn't a legal owner sell it if they wish to do so ? It dates to the Spanish American war so you know the original recipient ain't involved in this. I don't see why it's illegal to sell something like that.

The sale should have been stopped in my opinion.

"selling military medals awarded by Congress is illegal in the United States. Federal law authorizes fines of up to $100,000 and a year in jail."


that seems a bit harsh

What you got against capitalism?

Wonder who it was that sold it???
Probably some scumball family member who inherited it down the line 2 or 3 times.....
Glad at least the 2 krauts got bid driven out of the Auction.

I am surprised it sold so cheap.


For myself I put it in the same realm as the Victoria Cross and do not agree with either being saleable, no man should be able to buy such unless with blood and action.

Word..........

You either own it or you don't.

If you own it, you have the right to sell it.

Any other opinion is right out of Mao's little red book.

There was an attempt to sell one at auction near where I live a few years ago. The federal authorities intervened and prevented the sale but did not fine or charge anyone with a crime. The sellers were a couple of women as I recall. I also agree they should not be sold.

Selling it reduces it to a trinket instead of a distinction.

And a trinket it is not.

You can talk all the circles around it you care to. But if somebody owns an object and wants to sell it, they have the right to.

It belongs to them just like everything else they own.

That's where I stand.

then the medal of honor has no value and means nothing but you never served in combat so would never understand


Would the German auction house sell a jewish human skull from auschwitz or JFK's blood stained suit from his assassination ?

Having dealt with a few of them and their odd arty ways...probably.

John C Greenway, next to Teddy, with the light shirt on. Was awarded the Silver Star for San Juan Hill.

All of that's beside the point.

If someone owns it and wants to sell it, it's nobody's business.

You either own it or you don’t. If you own it, you can assign whatever value you want to it and sell it.

Captain "Black Jack" Pershing received a silver star also.

So every political office including POTUS, SCOTUS, State Govt offices and military officer position should be offered to the highest bidder then

Well to be honest...that does appear to be the current position.

lol....lol

If the political office was a piece of ribbon and a small hunk of metal you could put in your pocket, then, “sure”. If not, I don’t think your analogy makes any sense.

There are those of us that don't just see a "piece of ribbon and a small hunk of metal".

Whoever paid $15,500 for it obviously saw something more, also.

Doesn’t really matter what you see. What matters is what the guy who owns it sees. Well, at least that’s the way is supposed to work for those who aren’t communists.

Not in the US where it will cost you $100 000.

I don’t agree with the sale but Cruz or anyone else who knew before hand wouldn’t have had much trouble raising more than 15 grand to buy it and bring it back to a museum inthe US

You might better consider it like selling one’s knighthood or sainthood.

No...much more.

Would of been impressed if Cruz bought it and turned it over to a military museum.

Same here.

Interesting side note, I went to Sagamore Hill. TRs house in oyster bay and when you walk in the front door THAT hat that TR is wearing in this picture is hanging on a set of elk horns in the hallway.
Anyone interested in TR at all would really enjoy that house, when his wife died they locked the doors no one else ever lived there and now it's a national park or something. I got there early and went around back and pissed on a big oak tree that I bet anything TR did the same thing to many times.

I agree in theory but what if the seller needs the money and the buyer wants to do so to have it put on display at a museum commemorating the original owners actions? Restricting the freedoms of those who fought for it is no worse than restricting the freedoms of every other citizen and both have grown to be overly restricted.


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

Not only is his hat from the campaign hanging from the elk antlers in the study but so is the sword he carried in battle.

Sagamore Hill is the best historical home tour I've ever been on. Note I said home and not house. You can truly feel what it was like when TR was there and there were a bunch of kids running around and it was filled with life. Truly a home. Even the park rangers are different. We had our Lab Finn with us and wanted to let her go out before we went on the tour. There was a Ranger walking by and asked where we could let her out and she said "anywhere you want, the Colonel would approve".

They finished a major renovation of the house last year (or maybe two years) ago and we need to go back.

selling military medals awarded by Congress is illegal in the United States.


WTF? The Medal belongs to the person who earned it, received it, or his family. If he/she/they decided to sell it, great.

I didn't see Congress offering to buy it back....

For the sale of information as I haven’t a clue. But, did this happen to be one of the MOH’s that was recended by Congress sometime around 1917 during that great award purge? That could make a difference. Many a recipient lost his award due to Congressional action.

Just curious.

Looks like most of those were mostly Civil War ones. That's what I recalled but in making sure I was recalling correctly I found this site that has some interesting info as well as an ability to search the citations - https://www.fold3.com/page/905-medal-of-honor-awards-rescinded/stories

Thanks Pugs! I seem to remember that Billy Dixon had his resended for his action at 2nd Battle of Adobe Walls. I didn’t know for sure and don’t have time this morning to really look into it.

I also believe it was about this same time that Congress also changed things and made officers eligible for the MOH.

All have a good day!

did you just put a price on a MOH?

Well Congress created it...and did so for a reason...

They also made a law against it being sold, and did so for a reason..

and assigned a hefty fine for selling one.. for a reason..

so maybe you should be voicing your displeasure over that law that was passed forbidding it being sold, to your Senator and Congressman, or maybe even President Trump, and have them change the laws over it being sell-able...

otherwise anyone's opinion about it should be able to be sold, really doesn't matter..

Those that have served respect what the CMH means and represents.. so that is why they are inclined to agree to the law passed banning the sell of one...

Again Congress passed that law for a reason, as they created the Medal for a Reason during the Civil War...160 plus years ago..

And they are.....


You own it, it's yours to sell.

Should it be sold? No.

I think I got me a sore crotch on this one....

Plus, it is only illegal to sell it in the US.

Might as well sell our national parks too to the highest bidder and how about Arlington cemetery ? some prime realestate there lol

listed the fine.

A person is awarded the MOH.

They are not "given" it.

They are a "recipient" of the MOH.

A grateful nation, is still the owner.

IOW, they hold the MOH during their capacity to do so.

They are treated like royalty, as they should be, so their family is not intruded upon to return the award after their death.

The family is, and should be, able to keep and descend the MOH as they see fit.

But the MOH is still the property of the entity awarding it, a grateful nation.

Selling an award for incredible valor is, and should be discouraged, as it is, by law.

If the owner has so little respect for all honor surrounding the award, why ban someone who does from being its caretaker?

You are not allowed to sell this... in the United States. American auctions happily sell military medals from other countries. And Nobel prizes, and Olympic medals. I don't see how they can stop this guy's auction in Germany from selling it. And indeed they didn't.

(and if Ted Cruz really wanted it home in America, he should have made a bid)

Gooschiet, have we perhaps seen you on TV lately having fun in Minneapolis or Denver or Portland?

The recipient is loooong dead - 100 years dead - so it was obviously not awarded to the seller. No family member who even knew Pvt. Thomas Kelly is alive. Should it be illegal for that owner to possess it? What does it matter if he inherited it, found it, or bought it? He or she didn't earn , yet they still possess it. Should it be relegated to a junk drawer in some niece's house who never knew and doesn't give two shiites about Pvt. Thomas Kelly? Should the recipient be mandated to wear it in the grave? The medal is a symbol of the honor, not the honor itself.