SEIZURE BY CUSTOMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26980, 15 January 1949, Page 7

SEIZURE BY CUSTOMS

VALUABLE JEWELLERY IN BRITAIN ITALIAN OWNER’S STORY NZPA—Copyright ROME. Jan. 13. Signor Enzo Colombo, a Milan jeweller, said to-day tha't he had sent a quantity of valuable jewellery tc the Bank of England just before the war to prevent the Fascists confiscating it. This was,the jewellery, he said, which the British Customs Department announced they had seized yesterday. He intended telephoning his lawyer in London to secure the latest information. The jewels belonged to various Jewish families. They had not been sent to England to escape Customs payment, but “only to deposit part of my substance-in a free country with the assurance of receiving it when the war finished.” He said he had sent the jewels out of Italy in a diplomatic pouch, and received them himself in London, and personally deposited them at an institution which he did not nameColombo expressed confidence that the British authorities, after investigation, would let him have the jewels. He added that he had gone to London twice to take possession of the jewels—once, in 1946, and again in 1948. . On the first occasion it was impossible to do so, because Italy and Britain had not signed the peace treaty. On the second occasion he had entered into negotiations with the Enemy Property Department to get the jewels unblocked. The Customs Department said yesterday it had seized the jewels, estimated to be. worth £1,000.000, which had been in a London safe deposit for four years, because they had been unloaded from a ship in the United Kingdom without Customs or other duties first being paidColombo later said he will leave for London soon to recover the jewels.