According to a customs spokesperson who spoke to AFP, Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained at Munich airport on Wednesday for failing to declare an expensive watch. Actor and former California governor, 76, who was born in Austria, was held at the customs area on Wednesday afternoon after arriving from the US, spokesman Thomas Meister stated.
Schwarzenegger was expected to continue his travel later in the day, but “the watch will probably have to stay”, Meister said. Criminal charges have been filed against the Terminator actor for tax evasion, he added.
Meister said that since Schwarzenegger intended to sell the watch in the European Union, tax should have been paid on it.
As reported by Bild daily, the expensive watch was due to be auctioned at a fundraising dinner for Schwarzenegger’s climate campaign in Kitzbuehel on Thursday.
According to the initiative’s website, works of art and signed memorabilia are common auction items at such dinners.
Audemars Piguet, the expensive Swiss watchmaker, made the unique watch specifically for Schwarzenegger, Bild said.