14th-century samurai sword found in car at Swiss border

[gp]

Originally Posted by fernando

True he (the driver) should know about the Customs submission; but that complicates the story even further. Unless he intended (as instructed by his boss) to pass through with the object hidden somewhere inside the car; and the invoice was found while 'routine' searching and not intentionally shown by him to the Customs people. Still i find more plausible to read in the captured invoice about 'attributed' age and price of the sword an not that a Customs officer has the knowledge to figure out the difference between a regular katana and a high end piece from the XIV century 650.000 € worth ... with the due respect for Customs officials.

Ofcourse you are correct but the customs systems are set up in such a way that there is a clear process to determine the value.
Within the department’s HQ they have experts in all kind of fields but when it comes down to specific items such as this example, there are in each country qualified and certified specialists or socalled “ sworn/licensed assessors” which are being consulted or used for determination of the actual and real market value of an involved item.