Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was detained by customs officers at the Munich airport on Wednesday for not declaring a luxury watch he was wearing while traveling to Austria.
The Austrian-born actor and former governor of California, 76, was detained in the customs area of the airport on Wednesday afternoon after arriving in Germany from the US, according to a customs spokesperson, Thomas Meister.
Schwarzenegger was able to continue his journey after paying thousands of euros in tax, the German newspaper Bild reported.
The Hollywood star and former California governor was planning on auctioning the watch at his charity auction in Kitzbuhel, Austria on Thursday.
“This is the problem that Germany is suffering from. You can no longer see the forest for the trees,” Schwarzenegger told the paper. He said he had tried to explain to customs officals that the watch was being auctioned for a good cause, but to no avail.
Items typically auctioned at such dinners include works of art and signed memorabilia, according to the initiative’s website.
The timepiece was made especially for Schwarzenegger by the luxury Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet, according to Bild.
