Any painting leaving Italy has to go through customs and furthermore for each painting I have to make a request to the Beni Artistici with a self-certification of contemporary art, otherwise the painting does not leave the Italian borders.
If I then have to falsify the contents of the shipment without specifying that it is a painting, I also risk a legal sanction.
Unfortunately, it is not so easy to send works of art abroad.
This is also a problem with its not quite as simple as just fixing the money and focusing on that privacy, as our entire global infrastructure is shifting focus to that surveillance state, and barring not using any service, acting outside of it and getting reprimanded is still very real.
I don't have an answer or options for you, especially in Italy, but you also can't risk getting into whatever trouble that brings trying to falsify contents, as you risk both getting in trouble, and the artwork probably being damaged if they suspect something...
🤔 It sucks as I understand both sides, and you as what I believe to be a good faith actor would prefer to have as little to do with knowing someone's personal info and just know a place to ship it. And buyers are hesitant to share that.
I hope someone else can be more helpful with this. 🫂
While I can't speak for Italy specifically, I know I've ordered packages from all over the world dispatched to me with fake declaration info (even if the contents are legal - to avoid duties) and have never once had any issues getting them and the sellers who do this have only ever been caught if they used real return addresses (that didn't belong to the sender, but did belong to real businesses), an illicit package was sent to it, and that business saw what was inside and called police.
Even the risk from that could be mitigated, but that's unnecessary to send paintings.
Thats kinda nuts it takes so much to send a painting. Had no Idea.
How many packages does customs actually check?
My pet gerbil's brother may or may not have ordered relatively large quantities of pharmas into the country, declared as something else by the sender, fake return address, fake value (under the tax limit), and those packs if they existed would have gone through without a hitch.
Don't forget too not only did the UK leave the EU but also is not in the Schengen area. So full customs checks are in place.
Still easy to smuggle in drugs let alone a painting.
China when sending phones and other tech also falsely declares everything. If you go on AliExpress the sellers openly advertise in their listings how you won't have to pay import duties.
Basically no one cares.
Also, if you buy stamps with cash and deposit the packages at different post offices, what's the odds of it linking to you?
Food for thought.
