Or: Art & Customs & Moving House.

I know, I promised a nice blog post about my wife nearly getting arrested at customs. Well, she went to collect an item that was marked “gift” on the collecting sheet. How was she to know it would be an artwork I bought in the USA and that therefore wasn’t a gift at all? And how was she to know that the artwork contained a design of Adolf Hitler and a Swastika, which is a forbidden symbol in Germany? (Here is a link to the artwork by Frank Kozik I’m talking about.)

Well. The swastika issue came up when she had to unpack the “gift” for the officer to inspect. The first thing to be seen really is the name “Adolf” and a swastika. The man looked not amused. It was quickly resolved when the certificate of the print being a “piece of art” came out, too. Which was marked with a “thank you for your order” sticker. Which in turn raised the “gift vs. non-gift” issue. “You said it was a gift! You can be arrested for that! Five years of prison …” A  phone call to me and me faxing the paypal certificate solved that one. My wife’s dry remark to the customs officer: “He probably didn’t tell me beforehand this was coming, because he knows pretty well that I do not approve of him buying that sort of stuff. He was afraid I’d give him the trouble he deserves.” Which kind of made him smile again, she said.

Yes, my wife had a right to be pissed off. And she was. Slightly. And why does she still like me? (This is not the first time I did something other people would have been pissed off or at least irritated by.) Maybe because I my collecting art generates material she can talk about whenever the conversation with her colleagues shifts towards illnesses of the body, astrology, children or ruined relationships … or a combination thereof.

Moving house is another business all together. I did so last week and I still am. The “moving” itself was fast but the setting up takes time. I still have some painting and woodwork left to do. Both of which is messy stuff and so I have to keep my art boxed. Not a pretty sight, I tell you! I can’t wait for it to invade my walls … maybe another week or so …

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 1:07 am and is filed under All-Round Report.