The works, which were presented in 2014 in an exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, arrived at the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, the Kiev institution said in a statement on Monday (27 November). The transfer follows a June order by the Dutch Supreme Court to send the Scythian relics there, after it concluded that the items were part of Ukraine's national heritage and did not belong in Russian-annexed Crimea.
Museums in Moscow-controlled Crimea have been contesting that claim in Dutch courts for nearly a decade, arguing that any failure to return gold jewelry loaned by four Crimean institutions violated their loan agreement.
The “Scythian gold,” as it is often called, “belongs to Crimea and must be there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov told reporters at a press conference on Monday, according to the outlet Russian communication network Interfax. Items include a solid gold Scythian helmet from the 4th century BC, ceremonial daggers, Scythian and Sarmatian jewelry, and Chinese lacquer caskets, some up to 2,000 years old.
But the Dutch court sided with Ukraine, saying Crimea is part of its internationally recognized “territorial integrity,” and upheld a lower court’s 2021 decision to hand the collection over to Ukraine. “Although the museum pieces originate from Crimea and can therefore also be considered Crimean heritage, they are part of the cultural heritage of Ukraine,” the court said.
The outcome of the protracted legal battle is also symbolically significant. In the years since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, the dispute has come to symbolize the violent territorial disputes between the two nations – an issue that has obviously escalated dramatically in 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
When the exhibition titled “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea” closed at the Allard Pierson Museum in late 2014, following Moscow's annexation of Crimea, the institution did not know where to send the loaned items, so it took the case to court in what became a decade-long legal case.
The artifacts “cannot be returned to Crimea for an obvious reason – they cannot be handed over to the occupier, to the thief,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet praising the court's decision in June. “Of course it will be in Crimea – when the Ukrainian flag is in Crimea,” he added.
The four Crimean museums that claim rightful ownership include the Kerch Historical and Archaeological Reserve, the Taurida Central Museum, the Bakhchisarai Historical and Cultural Reserve, and the Khersones Tavriyskyi National Reserve.
Ukraine's National History Museum said its employees carefully unpacked 565 of the disputed pieces, which arrived by truck after years of storage, on Sunday. “The museum will make every effort to preserve [the artifacts],” Fedir Androschuk, the institution’s director, said in a statement, adding that “all those who were behind the political decision to return the collection to war-torn Ukraine” had the special responsibility to “provide you with unprecedented protection.”
The museum also reiterated that the items would be “guarded until Crimea is deoccupied.”
Source: Artnet News