There is a valuable thing out there. It's one-of-a-kind, which makes it the greatest prize ever. That means someone wants it, just for that reason, by any means.
Note it's not the artifact hypnotically seducing the person into wanting it. The person is just that selfish or greedy. Nor is it something earned; it's outright taken. It also doesn't count if someone steals it for the thrill of the theft, or to just show how good a thief they are. Either the thief has to want it, or they're stealing it for someone who does. Often overlaps with Obsessed with Deadly Item.
Note that this rarely ends well, no matter whether the story is idealistic or cynical. That person stole something they shouldn't keep. In idealistic stories, it's too important to lock away. In cynical stories, it's too dangerous to try to lock away.
Examples:
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Golden Wind: Diavolo's initial goal is eliminating Team Bucciarati until he learns of the Stand Arrow's capability to bestow an omnipotent power, making him want to obtain it to acquire the power.
- Stone Ocean: Enrico Pucci is a Heaven Seeker following the Evil Plan written by DIO to obtain the power that would allow him to Restart the World and create his own ideal world of "Heaven".
- Steel Ball Run: Funny Valentine seeks to acquire the Holy Corpse to utilize its power to make himself the most powerful president.
- JoJolion: Jobin conspires with the Rock Humans to obtain the Locacaca Fruit, manipulating his enemies to acquire it by any means necessary for wishing to use the fruit and end the family's Hereditary Curse.
- The JoJoLands: After realizing his land assets have been seized by a phenomenon similar to one caused by the lava rock, Acca Howler sends his subordinates to acquire the mineral.
- Lupin III doesn't count for this trope. He never wants it for the rarity, and has often taken something just to make sure someone else doesn't have it. On the other hand, Fujiko is also the cause of many of their capers. To the point where Jigen will try to quit the job once he hears it was her idea.
- Professor Machinegal in Moldiver has this as his main motivation for being a supervillain. He already is wealthy, respected, and famous, but there are technological artifacts he can only get by stealing, and he doesn't think anyone but him is worthy of them anyway.
- There's a Marvel Comics character named The Collector, who collected unique specimens from across the universe. Notably, his drive to collect is so strong he's become immortal.
- The original motivation of the Batman villain the Cavalier was to obtain unique pieces that he was unable to purchase for his collection.
- Green Lantern: Larfleeze wants everything, but especially rare things, like Lantern rings he's never seen before.
- Superboy (1994): Scavenger wants all the extraterrestrial tech and magical items around Hawaii. When a spear with rumored magical properties is featured on the news, he says it must be his before teleporting in and stealing it after Superboy has already been knocked for a loop by Knockout.
- Robin: Toyman takes advantage of the fact that the man who bought most of his collection will be completely unable to turn down a certain vintage toy tank if it appears at a toy seller's in Gotham by turning the thing into a remote-controlled weapon. The ensuing confrontation over the toys between Toyman and one of Bruce Wayne's eccentric neighbors who both have this mindset when it comes to the toys they collect has to be broken up by Robin.
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion: When Billie Morales accidentally transports herself to Earth-6160, the entirety of the Maker's Council notice her arrival. Not knowing what she is, only that it's somehow connected to their absent boss, they all decide it will be theirs. And they don't plan on sharing.
- A great deal of the friction and fighting between Wonder Woman and the Post-Crisis Cheetah(Barbara Minerva) is caused by Barbara's insistence on trying to steal Diana's lasso for her collection of mystical and occult artifacts.
- A Thing of Vikings: Roman Emperor Michael V is a Royal Brat who immediately demands Snotlout hand over his dragon Hookfang to him, simply because he wants it.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: When she was a child, Puissance's parents told her she'd want for nothing. Skip forward several decades, and she's an old and rich lady for who this has always been true, and whenever a new shiny thing catches her interest, she will have it. Even if that thing in question is a living being. She's got a whole collection of unique ponies all for herself, and who are creepily devoted to her in return.
- We Are All Pokémon Trainers: Most Macrauls will stop at nothing to increase the size of their collections if legal methods prove ineffective, including theft, violence, and, on at least one occasion, murder.
- Most of the characters in The Maltese Falcon will go to any lengths to obtain the fabled bird.
- In the first Acorna book, Hafiz Harakamian sought to add Acorna to his collection of rarities as the crown jewel, a desire which quickly disappeared once he learned she wasn't some sort of mutant, but a lost member of a space-faring race.
- The actions of Fiamma of the Right, the former Man Behind the Man of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches in A Certain Magical Index, are guided solely by his obsession with possessing Touma's Imagine Breaker and becoming more powerful than God himself.
- All of the unicorns, in The Last Unicorn, collected by King Haggard.
Haggard: They are mine! They belong to me! The Red Bull gathered them one-by-one and I bade him drive each one into the sea! I like to watch them. They fill me with joy. The first time I felt it, I thought I was going to die. I said to the Red Bull, 'I must have them! I must have all of them, all there are! For nothing makes me happy but their shining, and their grace.' So, the Red Bull caught them. Each time I see the unicorns — my unicorns — it is like that morning in the woods, and I feel young, in spite of myself!
- Myth Adventures:
- In Myth Directions, Tanda the Trollop assassin wants to procure a hideous green frog statue whose only value is as a trophy in a sporting competition, as a birthday present for Aahz. Counter Zanies and Hilarity Ensue. Then gets cranked even higher when Aahz learns about his intended gift and includes snatching it back as part of the plan to deal with the hilarity.
- Even funnier is how it happens. Aahz chews Skeeve out when he learns that the thing everyone's been going nuts over is a butt-ugly statue. But as soon as Skeeve admits that it was supposed to be his birthday present, Aahz practically falls in love with it.
- Simon R. Green's Nightside books feature the Collector, who is reclusive, petulant, and somewhat childish in his single-minded devotion to things that — in his opinion — only he can truly appreciate.
- Ublaz Mad Eyes in The Pearls of Lutra from the Redwall series is obsessed with the titular pearls, known as "the Tears of All Oceans". He has a crown already made with six empty facets in which to place the pearls, and wants them badly enough to send multiple expeditions out to Mossflower to find them, resulting in the slaughter of an entire hold of otters (save one) and the abduction of innocent Abbeydwellers just to satisfy his vanity.
- In Shakugan no Shana, the villain Sorath is obsessed with obtaining Shana's Flaming Sword Nietono no Shana. When he manages to steal it, he throws away his own Cool Sword Blutsauger.
- The Avengers (1960s) episode "The Man from Auntie" features a villainous firm that collects items like this for... collectors. The "item" they've currently stolen and plan to auction off is Emma Peel.
- Comes up in Dad's Army of all places where Mainwaring is trying to buy some oranges at a charity auction from the warden, who predictably is doing everything in his power to stop him from getting them. Eventually Wilson tells Pike to buy an orange for Mainwaring but neglects to tell the captain, resulting in Mainwaring entering a furious bidding war against himself. He eventually ends up paying ten shillings for it (when the first one sold for a couple of pence).
- Doctor Who:
- In "The Seeds of Doom", two alien pods are found in the Antarctic permafrost. The psychotic millionaire Harrison Chase sends a team of thugs to get them because they're unique. The pods cause vegetation to kill animal life, endangering the world.
- In "City of Death", a key plot-point involves the theft of the Mona Lisa, to be sold (along with six identical paintings) to finance Count Scarlioni's temporal experiments. Inspector Duggan observes to the Doctor at one point, "There are at least seven people in my address book who'd pay millions for that picture, for their own private collections. It would be an expensive gloat, but they'd do it."
- Happens often with the marks in Hustle. Examples include a rare banknote in "The Lesson" (or so it seems), a case of rare wine in "Getting Even", and a Faberge Egg (one of a matched pair) in "Eat Yourself Slender".
- An episode of Jonathan Creek had a woman and her daughter steal a valuable statue to spite its owner (the mother's brother). When the daughter went to recover it she was murdered by an Axe-Crazy, sociopathic pimp who decided he wanted it simply because he heard it was valuable.
- Kamen Rider Decade: Kamen Rider Diend has a 'treasure' in each episode that he is seeking. He alone knows what makes something a 'treasure,' and he only wants it because it is one, and rarely for what it actually does (some of 'em are important to the plot.)
- Invoked in the World of Kabuto arc, where Decade claims to have a bottle of legendary spice discovered by Vasco de Gama, which of course Diend wants. In reality, it's nothing but ordinary pepper, and Decade is Trolling Diend as payback for all the trolling he usually does.
- His habits cause significant chaos in Kamen Rider Zi-O because he arrives at some crucial point of the story and steals the most important Transformation Trinket at the moment. The intervention may be potentially world ending.
- In Lois & Clark, a baddie captures Superman and uses Lois Lane as hostage to make sure he doesn't escape. Which he does, via New Powers as the Plot Demands.
- At least one Mission: Impossible episode had a millionaire who had a national treasure that the original nation wanted back, and it was important they get it for reasons of international politics. The current owner was not cooperative.
- The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys". The thing that was stolen was Lieutenant Commander Data. It probably wasn't one of Kivas Fajo's better business plans...
- Joey Ryan's explanation for showing up in Championship Wrestling From Hollywood with the organization's television title belt, even though he never won it. As the biggest television star on the card, why shouldn't he have the belt?
- ANNO: Mutationem: C's main goal is to acquire The Dypheus' Breath, an ancient artifact capable of opening and connecting to alternate dimensions, which is concealed deep within Hinterland. He solely desires the spear as he believes it would allow him to revive D, his deceased fiancee. C's overgrowing obsession with obtaining it escalates with him committing chaos amidst The Consortium, acting ignorant towards the obvious fact that attempting to pull the artifact out would result in catastrophic consequences.
- Assassin's Creed: Mirage: One of Basim's targets is an Order member who draws attention to herself through the sheer amount of effort she puts in trying to acquire a Chinese hairpin. It's not important, just expensive. She even ignores warnings from other Order members suggesting, what with some of their other members dying all of a sudden lately, to lay low just so she can get it.
- Chandra in Eternal Darkness says this about one of the artifacts of the Ancients, before she knew what exactly it was.
- In Mystery of Mortlake Mansion, "R's" notes reveal that he was obsessed with the magic of Cagliostro. Too late does he realise that Evil Is Not a Toy.
- In Sonic Adventure 2, Rouge the Bat is the Foil to Knuckles the Echidna because of why both of them want the Master Emerald. Knuckles wants the Emerald because it helps keeps Angel Island afloat, and he considers protecting the Emerald to be his solemn duty due to being the Last of His Kind. Meanwhile, Rouge is a treasure hunter and a thief who adores jewels, and wants the Master Emerald to satiate her own greed. In her introductory cutscene, Rouge proclaims that "all the world's gems are mine to keep!" while admitting that she only wants the Master Emerald because it's a big jewel and that's it. However, after Knuckles saves Rouge's life towards the end of the game, Rouge gives Knuckles all the shards of the Master Emerald she stole so he can restore it.
- Dork Tower: This is actually Igor's catchphrase, though it seems like it doesn't so much have to be a unique thing as just press his nerd buttons.
- In Nodwick's Lord of the Rings parody, the Gollum character is based on Igor above. Nodwick quickly realised that "This One Ring" is not an Artifact of Attraction as everyone believed; Smeagor was just crazy.
- The Simpsons: In one Treehouse of Horror episode, Comic Book Guy is the supervillain "The Collector" who collects Lucy Lawless, the Fourth Doctor, Matt Groening, etc. He also owns the only working phaser ever made (only fired once, to keep William Shatner from making another album) and a working double-lightsaber.
Lawless: You removed it from its original packaging!Collector: No! It's no longer a collectible!
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In the episode "One Krabs' Trash", Mr. Krabs had just sold a cap to Spongebob when another person showed up saying it was a rare cap and offering way more than what Spongebob paid. Krabs spends most of the episode trying to recover it and, by the time he did get it back, a warehouse with a full stock was discovered, making it not so valuable anymore.
- Superman: The Animated Series, episode "The Main Man": An alien called the Preserver has a private zoo in which every creature is the last of its kind; in the episode, it attempts to add Superman, the last Kryptonian, to its collection by hiring Lobo to capture him. Once Lobo succeeds, the Preserver captures him as well, since he's the last Czarnian. Lobo and Supes team up. Hilarity Ensues.
- There was a ThunderCats (1985) episode where some queen tried to cage a magical songbird (although its song didn't come across as beautiful as we were told).
- X-Men: The Animated Series: Mastermind wants to corrupt and / or seduce the Phoenix because he's a Stalker with a Crush. The Inner Circle help him because they just figure such power should belong to them.
- Galaxy Goof-Ups: In "Space Station USA", once the titular station is found, the richest man in galaxy wants to add it to his space station collection and has no moral objections against stealing it.
