Rare Items Stolen From World’s Largest Star Wars Collection

Dating back to the premiere of the original film’s release in 1977, Star Wars has sparked legions of devoted collectors who seek to obtain every piece of merchandise imaginable. Additionally, with its 40-year legacy, there have been thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of different unique products released that honors that galaxy far, far away, ranging from statues and prop replicas to tape dispensers and candy shaped like Jar Jar’s tongue.

Sadly, the biggest collection of Star Wars merchandise on the planet, Rancho Obi-Wan, has revealed that at least 100 rare and unique items have been stolen from its collection, valued in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Steve Sansweet, president and CEO of the nonprofit Rancho Obi-Wan, revealed the news on the organization’s website earlier this week. Even more troubling, the thefts came from one of Sansweet’s trusted associates, Carl Edward Cunningham.

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Sansweet made the realization back in February after another collector, Philip Wise, revealed that he had a rare figure stolen from his personal collection, resulting in another collector revealing to Wise that he had purchased the item from Cunningham. The collector then compiled a detailed list of all the Star Wars items he had purchased from Cunningham in recent years, only to discover that some of these items had been stolen from Rancho Obi-Wan.

Cunningham surrendered himself to authorities in March and was charged with felony grand theft and is currently free on bail.

Rancho Obi-Wan has posted a list of some of the items missing from their collection and asks for help in tracking down where Cunningham could have sold these items.

Both Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, and Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, have taken to Twitter to help spread the word about the theft.

Rancho Obi-Wan has amassed over 350,000 items over the years, earning it a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest collection of Star Wars items.

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“This has become the spiritual home, in a way, for Star Wars collectors,” Sansweet told The L.A. Times. “For somebody to come in and steal items from that reference collection, to steal major and important items that I treasure from an emotional standpoint, not from a financial standpoint…has been really devastating.”

“We’re starting to hear from people saying, ‘I want to make sure this gets back to Rancho Obi-Wan,’” Sansweet revealed after posting his message online. “My hope would be that everyone will be compensated for what they bought and will be willing to return the items to Rancho, but that all depends on an insurance settlement. And that’s never easy with insurance companies.”