about the value of the exhibits and the details of the long-term dispute

About the value of the exhibits and the details of the long-term dispute – in the Kommersant information.

How Scythian gold came to the Netherlands

In February 2014, an exhibition of Scythian gold “Crimea – a golden island in the Black Sea” opened at the Allard Pearson Museum in the Netherlands. It presented archaeological finds made in Crimea. The exhibition dates from the period from the Greek colonization of the peninsula (VI century BC) to the early Middle Ages (VI–VII centuries). In total, more than 580 artifacts (over 2 thousand items) were presented. The most valuable exhibits are considered to be a double-sided sculptural image of the snake-footed goddess of the Scythians, a tent top in the form of a griffin, decorated elements of a horse harness, etc.

In addition to gold jewelry, Chinese lacquer boxes were sent to the exhibition, which were preserved after lying in the ground for 2 thousand years. Sensational finds proved for the first time that China traded with the Roman Empire, and Crimea was on the trade route between East and West. The exhibits were provided by four Crimean museums (at that time Crimea was part of Ukraine as an autonomous republic), as well as the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine in Kyiv. The exhibition in the Netherlands was supposed to end in May 2014, and before June the exhibits were planned to be returned to Crimea and Kiev.

What has changed since 2014

After the coup in Ukraine in February and the transfer of Crimea to Russian jurisdiction in March, a legal conflict arose regarding the ownership of the exhibits. Russia and Ukraine have claimed their rights to them. In August 2014, the management of the Allard Pearson Museum announced that it would not return exhibits to either the Crimean museums or Kyiv until the legal dispute was resolved. Only 19 items from the collection were returned to the Kiev museum; the remaining artifacts remained in storage in Amsterdam.

Trials

In 2016, the Amsterdam District Court ruled that Scythian gold should be returned to Ukraine. In 2017, Crimean museums protested the district court’s decision in the court of appeal, later submitting additional information about ownership to the court. In 2019, Ukraine challenged Amsterdam Court of Appeal judge Duco Oranje due to circumstances “that may indicate his bias.” Despite the fact that the court found no evidence of his interest in the case, a year later Oranje was replaced by Gerard Levin.

Subsequently, the court repeatedly postponed the hearing of the case. In April 2021, the hearings resumed; on October 26, the Amsterdam court ruled that Scythian gold should be transferred to Kyiv “until the situation in Crimea stabilizes.” On November 22, 2023, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine announced that the Netherlands will transfer Scythian gold to Kyiv in the near future. On November 27, it became known that the valuables had arrived in Kyiv, and local customs began customs clearance of the collection.