Buenos Aires Customs

[1] Local architects Eduardo Lanús and Pablo Hary were commissioned in 1909 to design the new administrative offices for the Aduana, which was noteworthy not only for its 100 metres (328 ft) façade and its two turrets, but also for its use of carrara marble cladding throughout, as well as its numerous allegorical details such as the ornamental bull's heads and the marble caryatids along the cornice, some bearing intricate wrought-iron acanthus and laurel wreaths.

Following refurbishment works, on September 28, 2009, the Customs Building was declared a National Historic Monument by President Cristina Kirchner.

[3] The building reflected the importance of customs duties to the national treasury itself, which from the colonial era of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata until 1930, accounted for around 80 percent of government revenues.

[3] The bureau's autonomy later led to significant improprieties, notably the development in 1988 of a "parallel customs" by President Raúl Alfonsín's administrator of the office, Carlos Delconte,[4] and that of a racketeering network in 1991 overseen by President Carlos Menem's customs administrator and brother-in-law, Ibrahim al-Ibrahim (a Syrian national who spoke almost no Spanish).

[5] Ultimately, the customs bureau was transferred to the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP) by a 1997 decree signed by President Menem.