“Yosuke Kawasaki, concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, has won an appeal against a fine of US $90,060 for taking a violin and bows into Canada,” reads an unsigned Thursday (8/6) report at MusicalAmerica.com. In 2012, the Japanese-American violinist was “stopped at the Thousand Island Islands Bridge Landsdowne border crossing…. He told officials that he had purchased goods abroad with an approximate value of US $114, but a search of his vehicle revealed an 1833 Pressenda violin, worth US $291,790, an 1850 Peccatte bow, worth US $68,230, and two other bows, worth US $5,155 and $1,516 each. Kawasaki had been performing in New York and said that the goods had not been purchased during the trip. He told officials that he had taken them into Canada when he first settled there in 2008, but did not declare them at the time. The Canadian Border Services Agency fined him US $90,960; he paid US $15,160, roughly 25 percent of the total due, to have the items released to him…. But the total amount has now been declared an ‘unreasonable burden’ on Kawasaki. Instead, he will pay a total of US $45,240, the amount he would have paid at the border had the instruments been declared in 2008.”
Posted August 10, 2015
