Hello,
I was traveling Aeroflot KJA-SVO-JFK and then Air Canada JFK-YYZ (the entire journey on a single Aeroflot-stock ticket), with 2 pieces of luggage checked in at KJA all the way to JFK: a suitcase and a painting in a protective wooden box. When I arrived at JFK, the painting wasn't there - they found it in the system and said it's on the next day's SVO-JFK flight, but I had to leave to YYZ before it arrived. I got a call later on from the Aeroflot luggage office at JFK, saying they're putting it on a Delta flight to YYZ today in the morning. I called the Delta luggage hotline and gave them the file number - they said they see a record of the painting being on the Delta flight, but don't have any record of it being scanned at the YYZ Delta luggage office. I called the Aeroflot JFK luggage office again, and they said that the painting was "refused at customs" and had no other details, and they don't seem to know how to proceed next. The painting is worth about $300 as far as I can tell (I got it as a gift) but has sentimental value. I also thought that the wooden box may be a problem for customs (due to agricultural regulations, etc), but I'd be happy to accept just the painting and have them confiscate the box. So, my questions are:
1) How/why can a piece of lost luggage be "refused at customs"?
2) Is there any way I can prevent this from happening? Or at least talk to the customs officer doing the inspection? Or at least find out the detailed reason for the refusal?
3) Any other suggestions for dealing with this situation would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I am not an active FlyerTalk user - if there's a better sub-forum for posting this question, please let me know.