diff --git a/addons/base_import/tests/test_cases.py b/addons/base_import/tests/test_cases.py
index bad79bc7cdc..768754df07c 100644
--- a/addons/base_import/tests/test_cases.py
+++ b/addons/base_import/tests/test_cases.py
@@ -210,9 +210,6 @@ class test_preview(TransactionCase):
         })
         self.assertTrue('error' in result)
 
-    def test_csv_errors(self):
-        Import, id = self.make_import()
-
         result = Import.parse_preview(self.cr, self.uid, id, {
                 'quoting': '"',
                 'separator': 'bob',
@@ -356,3 +353,32 @@ class test_convert_import_data(TransactionCase):
             Import._convert_import_data,
             record, [False, False, False],
             {'quoting': '"', 'separator': ',', 'headers': True,})
+
+class test_failures(TransactionCase):
+    def test_big_attachments(self):
+        """
+        Ensure big fields (e.g. b64-encoded image data) can be imported and
+        we're not hitting limits of the default CSV parser config
+        """
+        import csv, cStringIO
+        from PIL import Image
+
+        im = Image.new('RGB', (1920, 1080))
+        fout = cStringIO.StringIO()
+
+        writer = csv.writer(fout, dialect=None)
+        writer.writerows([
+            ['name', 'db_datas'],
+            ['foo', im.tobytes().encode('base64')]
+        ])
+
+        Import = self.env['base_import.import']
+        imp = Import.create({
+            'res_model': 'ir.attachment',
+            'file': fout.getvalue()
+        })
+        [results] = imp.do(
+            ['name', 'db_datas'],
+            {'headers': True, 'separator': ',', 'quoting': '"'})
+        self.assertFalse(
+            results, "results should be empty on successful import")
diff --git a/openerp/cli/server.py b/openerp/cli/server.py
index db0ab0699a1..f3932b4bf60 100644
--- a/openerp/cli/server.py
+++ b/openerp/cli/server.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ GNU Public Licence.
 """
 
 import atexit
+import csv
 import logging
 import os
 import signal
@@ -142,6 +143,11 @@ def main(args):
 
     config = openerp.tools.config
 
+    # the default limit for CSV fields in the module is 128KiB, which is not
+    # quite sufficient to import images to store in attachment. 500MiB is a
+    # bit overkill, but better safe than sorry I guess
+    csv.field_size_limit(500 * 1024 * 1024)
+
     if config["test_file"]:
         config["test_enable"] = True