The market for military memorabilia

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Presenter David Reid explores the huge market in military memorabilia. Enthusiasts recreating historical battles has surged in recent years and driven a boom in the market for military uniforms and artefacts. We speak to dealers and buyers and explore the ethics of what some say is a blood soaked trade.

David reports from a re-enactment event and speaks to John Ruffhead, the co-ordinator for the Royal Navy Beachhead Commando re-enactors, to find out more about those who take part. Charlotte Huxley-James, a World War Two living historian tells us about the military uniforms she has bought over the years and why authenticity really matters.

We also hear from military memorabilia dealer Malcolm Fisher who tells us the market for what he sells is huge and defends the trade in Nazi artefacts.

Producer/presenter: David Reid

(Photo: US Army Sergeant in uniform decorated with medals. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love, Janessa, a brand new true crime podcast from the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.
0:07.2	It's a story about love, deceit and survival, and it's available now. Find out more at the end of this
0:13.8	podcast. It's the only place on the planet where Vikings fight it out with broadswords,
0:24.3	while a Vietnam War ambush crackles in the background within earshot of a talk on samurai fighting techniques.
0:32.2	I've come to Military Odyssey to investigate the business end of living history and meet the enthusiasts who
0:40.1	recreate past eras and events.
0:45.0	People like it for the escapers in Masspects and the escaping of the modern world.
0:50.3	So because of that, Vikings are really hot topic these days.
0:56.1	The public come in there thousands to rubberneck the military skirmishes.
1:00.6	Oh, and the uniforms and gear.
1:03.0	Original kit is best and it's nicer to have.
1:06.3	But if we have reproduction kit like our uniforms,
1:08.9	then it needs to be spot on.
1:10.4	It's beholden on us to
1:11.7	tell history correctly or not at all. This obsessive zeal for keeping it real is fed by an
1:17.9	international industry producing replica uniforms and a market in authentic artefacts. But high prices
1:24.9	can also come with heavy and chilling historical baggage.
1:29.4	Okay, so tell me about this flag. It's a Nazi flag with a swast sticker on it.
1:34.1	That particular flag we're looking at now, that's unbelievably rare. It's £28,000.
1:40.2	It's a marketplace like anything else.
1:42.9	Today on Business Daily, we're living in the past and reenacting warfare.
1:47.6	Living histories exploded in recent decades as heroic tales have leapt in all their gritty detail from the page onto the silver screen.
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