VC medal must remain in Australia after auction
Published July 10th, 2006
Australian Auction Info
THE LAST privately owned Victoria Cross awarded to an Australian soldier at Gallipoli is likely to go to an overseas buyer, according to a Sydney auction house selling the medal this month.
Bonhams & Goodman chief executive Tim Goodman said a British and an American collector had expressed strong interest in Captain Alfred John Shout’s VC, even though the medal is required by law to remain in Australia.
Both the British and American collectors told Mr Goodman they would be keeping the VC in a vault in Australia if their bid was successful.
Of the nine VCs won by Australians at Gallipoli, Captain Shout’s is the only one not held at the Australian War Memorial.
The memorial, as a matter of practice, will not be bidding for the VC when it is auctioned on July 24 in Sydney.
