Freeports: The Beauty of Tax Free Storage (2021)

From Singapore to Luxembourg via Switzerland, a very discreet service is now booming: the storage of precious goods (works of art, luxury cars, vintage wines) in secure warehouses called free ports, originally considered as temporary transit zones. This system, which is extremely advantageous for owners who remain anonymous if they wish and are exempt from customs duties and VAT, encourages tax evasion and parallel trade. For these goods can be resold within the warehouses themselves in transactions that are not always transparent. Museum officials deplore, for example, that these secret storages allow certain key works to be stolen from public view for a long time.