Confiscated assets, 350 luxury watches up for auction. Here's how to participate

The 350 chronometers confiscated following the maxi seizure in 2016 of luxury watches worth more than EUR 1 million end up at public telematic auction. The confiscated goods become the property of the State, which stipulates their sale at auction ordered by the judicial authority.

The financiers of the Domodossola Company and officials from the Customs and Monopolies Agency had stopped a Japanese traveller on board a night train from Milan to Paris who had concealed watches, used but in perfect condition and with guarantee certificates, inside two suitcases. The offender was reported for smuggling, for the illegal introduction of the goods into the territory of the state. This was the start of a legal case that, following investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Verbania, reached the Court of Verbania, which convicted the offender, ordering the confiscation of the seized goods and the payment of a fine of over half a million euro.

By a judgment that has become irrevocable, the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola Customs Office has entrusted the sale by public auction of the confiscated assets to the Istituto Vendite Giudiziarie of Turin. The sale will take place online from 14 to 24 April 2025. The auction takes place online on the sites: ivgtorino.it, ivgnovara.it and astagiudiziaria.com where the clocks can be viewed and where it is possible to see features, base auction price and minimum bid.

"Thanks to the work of the financiers and ADM officials," reads a note, "a concrete step is being taken to achieve the return of sums destined for the Treasury, which will benefit the community. The synergy and the constant cooperation between the Customs and Monopolies Agency and the Guardia di Finanza in the control and fight against fraud at border crossings represent a consolidated activity that daily aims at protecting the interests of the Treasury".