Scythian gold originally exhibited in Crimea returns to Ukraine from Netherlands

The Allard Pierson Museum handed over to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine artifacts from four museums of Crimea, which had been stored in the Netherlands for almost 10 years, reported the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.

Until the de-occupation of Crimea, the "Scythian Gold" will be kept in the Museum of the History of Ukraine.

"During the legal disputes, our museum was designated as a storage place for the collections of the Crimean museums. This means that the museum will make every effort to preserve them and ensure that citizens and guests of Ukraine can see them," said the director general of the Kyiv museum Fedir Androshchuk.

The State Customs Service of Ukraine reported that it has already started the customs clearance of "Scythian Gold", which includes 565 items, in particular, antique sculptures, Scythian and Sarmatian jewelry, Chinese lacquer caskets, which are 2,000 years old.

"Currently, a truck with 2,694 kg of cultural values known as "Scythian Gold" has entered the premises of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, where customs officials will identify the treasures in the Treasury of the National Museum of Ukraine," the customs officials wrote.

Artifacts were taken out of Crimea in early 2014, before Russia's occupation of the peninsula, for the exhibition "Crimea - A Golden Island in the Black Sea", which took place at the Allard Pierson Museum in the Netherlands.

When the exhibition ended, Crimea was already under occupation. Therefore, the question arose as to where to hand over these items: to museums in the occupied Crimea or Ukraine.

On December 14, 2016, the Amsterdam court decided to return the "Scythian Gold" to Ukraine, but in January 2017, the Crimean museums began the process of appealing the decision. In 2021, the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam ruled in favor of Ukraine.

Museums of Crimea filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands with a request to cancel the court's decision. On June 9, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands rejected the cassation appeal of the Crimean museums, and left the appeal decision unchanged.

According to the final decision issued by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, Ukraine had to pay the Allard Pierson Museum 111,689 euros with interest for the entire period of preservation of the Crimean museum collections. However, last week the Dutch museum canceled the debt of Ukraine.