FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - How to get a sword from St. Louis to a museum in Italy
Old Feb 26, 2004, 6:57 pm
  #1  
hhonorman
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Andover, MA USA
Posts: 1,556
How to get a sword from St. Louis to a museum in Italy

Does anyone know to successfully ship a sword (antique) to Italy? A friend of mine lives in St. Louis and is a descendant from a small village outside of Milan. Her grandfather fought in an italian regiment from that village and she has his sword. When we were all in the Italian village last year in the tiny local musuem, she mentioned to the curator that she had the sword. It brought such a huge smile to his face and eyes that she instantly knew she must donate it to the museum.

She's looked into sending it via the postal service, but the postmaster at her local branch told her that although the USPS doesn't permit shipment of weapons, she was able to convince them that this was an antique for a museum and not a weapon. However, the postmaster said that even if he allowed her to ship it, that it would never get past Italian customs inspectors.

The museum curator is of little assistance because although he's a charming and wonderful man, he's not exactly sofisticated in such matters. My friend is contacting someone at the Southern Illinois University to see if they can help. I thought I'd give flyertalk a try. With all of the collective wisdom here, I've yet to come across a problem that somebody here couldn't solve. Any suggestions?



[This message has been edited by hhonorman (edited Feb 26, 2004).]
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