Past shipments to Thesaurus have drawn Customs scrutiny

The U.S. Customs Service in Seattle investigated shipments by Thesaurus Fine Arts owners in 1997, 1998 and last year, turning back two shipments and allowing a third while saying alleged consumer fraud was not a Customs case.

The agency closed its investigation Thursday and released a four-page file Friday under the Freedom of Information Act. The file, which blacked out individual names, showed:

• A 1997 shipment said to contain a dinosaur head and antiquities from China was blocked after the U.S. Department of Agriculture objected to importing foreign soil mixed with the objects.

• A 1998 shipment with four sets of calligraphy books dated 1821-65 was blocked after a consul said they "are national treasures of the People's Republic of China" and should be returned to China through diplomatic channels. It was unclear whether that happened, the Customs report said.

• An August 2002 shipment of 37 cartons of statues, ceramics, jades and bronzes was improperly classified as household effects but allowed to enter the country after an expert determined they weren't worth more than the claimed total value of $12,000.

Customs and FBI agents called in John Fairman, respected owner of Honeychurch Antiques of Seattle, to assess the items. He said investigators asked if the shipment was more valuable than claimed, but he informed them it consisted of bad fakes of little value.

Antiques more than 100 years old are duty-free, but Thesaurus wasn't claiming these were antiques when they entered the Port of Seattle.

"(Customs investigators) were deflated. They thought they had them" on an import duties charge, Fairman said.

Customs let Thesaurus reclassify the goods as modern commercial items and pay duty.

Whether Thesaurus went on to sell some of those items as falsely certified antiques — as Fairman warned would happen — is an issue for state or local authorities, not the U.S. Customs Service, spokesman Nikki Fillipi said.