"Scythian gold" after ten years of trials returned to Ukraine

Artefacts from four museums in Crimea, presented at the exhibition "Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea" in Amsterdam, known as "Scythian gold", have been returned to Ukraine. This was reported by the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

After almost 10 years of vessels artefacts from four museums of Crimea, which were presented at the exhibition "Crimea: gold and secrets of the Black Sea" in Amsterdam, returned to Ukraine. The Allard Pearson Museum transferred them to the National Museum of History of Ukraine. It is there that they will be kept until the de-occupation of Crimea, - stated in the message.

From February to August 2014, the Allard Pearson Museum hosted the exhibition "Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea" (De Krim. Goud en geheimen van de Zwarte Zee). It displayed items from the collections of the National Museum of History of Ukraine and four museums in Crimea.

In February 2014, Russia began its occupation of Crimea. The Crimean museums, which are de facto controlled by the Russian government, insisted that the artefacts be returned to Crimea. A lawsuit was launched in the Netherlands.

In December 2016, a court in Amsterdam ruled to hand over the Crimean treasures to Ukraine. The Court of Appeal in Amsterdam also decided to satisfy the lawsuit to transfer the Crimean artefacts to the state of Ukraine.

According to the final judgement handed down by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, Ukraine had to pay the Allard Pearson Museum 111,689 euros with interest for the entire time of storage of the Crimean collections.

After negotiations, the Allard Pearson Museum refused the court-ordered payment in its favour. In November, the objects from the Crimean museums underwent an independent inspection, after which they were carefully packed in accordance with museum regulations. The artefacts were then transported to Kiev.

Kiev customs said it had already started processing the "Scythian gold". The lorry with 2694 kg of cultural valuables, known under the common name "Scythian gold", entered the territory of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

Now experts are examining the condition of these things. We are talking about 565 items, including antique sculptures, Scythian and Sarmatian jewellery, Chinese lacquer boxes, which are two thousand years old.