In the week thieves nicked the Cheltenham Gold Cup and a cable TV network paid $266,000 for a stuffed horse named Trigger (yes, that Trigger, of Roy Rogers fame) Faith Eckersall asks: what is it we would most like to own? And why?

FOR ARTHUR Scargill it was the Mona Lisa, the one thing he said he’d like to take to Radio 4’s Desert Island with him. Former Prime Minister John Major admitted he’d like to possess The Oval cricket ground. And Mohammed Al-Fayed wanted Harrods so much, he went out and bought it.

We’re not talking little wants here, or even medium ones, like Louboutins, or the new iPad. We’re talking giant or fantasy wants. We’re talking about stuff we’d just like to have. Because we just would, OK?

Why anyone wants to own a stuffed Trigger is anyone’s guess and scientists are still working on why we desire certain things. In a thoughtful essay entitled All We Ever Wanted, Adam Berninger discusses what drives our desire to possess certain items. “In choosing between similar things, our desires may result from a ranking of qualities, rather than the qualities themselves,” he writes. “Instead of being attracted to the potential effect of an object, it may be rated on its value claimed by others.”

Thing’s I’d like to own:

• The State Diadem. Never mind the State Crown and the King Edward affair the Queen used at the Coronation. What I want is the State Diadem, the exquisite, half-crown, half-tiara the Queen wears on the stamps. I love its delicate structure, the incorporation of the symbols of the Union and, of course, the 1,333 diamonds.

• Durdle Door. Anyone who’s ever been there will understand why.

• The Roman Ruins at Aptera in Crete. One of the most unspoiled sites I’ve ever been to. I’d cordon it off and use it for spring-time picnics.

• The outdoor swimming pool at San Simeon in California. I’m still working out how I could sneak a swim in this US ‘national monument’ without getting branded a violator and banned from all the others.

• Monet’s nine-panel Les Nymphaeas from the Orangerie in Paris. I have wanted to possess these extraordinary paintings ever since I first saw them. Looking at them is like being able to gaze into Monet’s very soul.

Random wants culled from these Daily Echo writers and photographers:

Harriet Marsh: “I would like to possess the dress worn by Keira Knightly in Atonement. I know it probably wouldn’t suit my shape but that doesn’t stop me wanting it.”

Hattie Miles: “The farm in Kent where I was born and grew up because it is a place of which I don’t have a single, unhappy memory.”

Mel Vass: “A beach hut at Mudeford. Perfect!”

Corin Messer: “The farm where I grew up in Dorset. I would like to know it was protected for the future.”

David Ross: “The Homburg hat worn by Tony Hancock. Just to own such a symbolic item that belonged to a man who has never failed to make me laugh would be wonderful.”

Nicky Findley: “I would like one of those flying cars that they've been testing in the States so I can beat the morning rush hour or what I'd really like is the time machine from the film Back to the Future, so I can go back and relive my youth! If I can’t have that I’ll have a yacht so I could sail along the American coast in it.”

Julie Magee: “A house overlooking my favourite coastline, in Antrim, Northern Ireland.”

Jane Reader: “A desert island. I’m not fussy which!”