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Boat with Paintings & Diamonds Detained in Russia

June 10, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Someone has been smuggling goods into Russia. They’ve got decent taste because the items were covered with labels from the auction houses:

Russian custom officers have detained a motor vessel in St Petersburg, which was carrying paintings, diamonds and antiques marked with Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction label tags, Russian website Gazeta.ru reports. The relics were illegally imported from Germany. […]

“Antique paintings, table silver, ancient Japan vases and plates were hidden among the boxes of apples on the truck, which was in the cargo section of the vessel,” Irina Ogurtsova, a spokeswoman for the Baltic Customs,  said. “In total, there were more than one hundred antiques. Some of them were marked with Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions labels.”

The most valuable art objects, which were detained on the truck, were five ancient Dutch paintings of XVII-XIX centuries.

Russian Customs Impound Sotheby’s and Christie’s Lots (Mosnews.com)

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