Goa Customs Museum – reported by iafrica.com
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.The Goa Customs museum has attracted the attention of the iafrica.com. The site reported yesterday,
The Indian Customs and Central Excise Museum, created at a reported cost of about USD600 000, is housed in a heritage building on the banks of the river Mandovi in the Goa state capital Panaji.
The building, painted in indigo blue after the dye traded in Portuguese colonial times, is thought to have been built in 1600 and served as the headquarters for customs operations from 1834 to the turn of the 21st century.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Lillian Fernandes, the officer in charge of the museum, said collecting the exhibits has been a labour of love, with workers scanning through huge lists of seized goods from across India and then battling through red tape.
The museum also has a rare handwritten copy of the "Ain I Akbari" (Institutes of Akbar), a Persian-language gazetteer of the Mughal emperor Akbar's empire containing administrative reports and statistics.
The important historical work, charting the history of the emperor's reign in great detail, was written by his courtier Abu Fazl and dates back to the late 16th century.
Customs officials seized the document as it was being smuggled out of Patna, in the northeastern state of Bihar.
The most prized item on display is a gold idol, which was smuggled into India from Nepal and is estimated to be worth upwards of 10 million rupees (USD200 000).