Dutch court to render verdict on 'scythian gold' case in late October – Dzhaparova

KYIV. Sept 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has postponed the announcement of the decision on the ownership of the "Scythian gold" to October 26, 2021, said Emine Dzhaparova, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

"The Amsterdam Appeal Court rescheduled date of adjudication of case of returning exhibition ‘Crimea – the Golden Island in the Black Sea’ for October 26. We believe that the Court will confirm decision of Amsterdam District Court of 2016 to return ‘Scythian gold’ to Ukraine#CrimeaIsUkraine," she wrote on Twitter.

As reported, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Svitlana Fomenko is taking part in the session of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal on the claim of the state of Ukraine against the Allard Pearson Museum – the archaeological museum of the University of Amsterdam on the so-called "scythian gold" case.

"During her speech, the Deputy Minister said: ‘Ukraine opposes the illegal transfer of ownership of the artifacts of the Ukrainian exhibition ‘Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea’ to the Russian Federation, to Russian institutions hidden under the name of the so-called ‘Crimean museums’ that exist only within the framework of court cases," the press service of the Ministry of Culture says.

According to Fomenko, Russian institutions calling themselves "museums" are in fact thieves. She stated about the facts of illegal export of Ukrainian cultural values from the territory of Crimea, about the facts of damage, destruction of cultural heritage objects, the facts of illegal archaeological excavations and the appropriation of the found values.

The Deputy Minister of Culture stressed that the occupation authorities regard the Crimean Peninsula as a base of military operations for further military escalation in Europe and around the world.

The Ministry of Culture said that the decision to send artifacts belonging to the Ukrainian people from the Ukrainian exhibition "Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea" to Crimea now, when it is under Russian control, is illegal and will lead to the loss of the cultural heritage of Ukraine, and will also become recognition of the attempted annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The exhibition entitled "Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea," representing a collection of Scythian gold jewelry, was formed in the Allard Pierson Museum of the University of Amsterdam from the collections of five museums, one of which is located in Kyiv, four in Crimea. Since the Netherlands did not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, which took place after the opening of the exhibition, the issue arose of who will return the collection of 565 museum items with a total insurance value of EUR 10 million.

The part of the collection belonging to Crimean museums was claimed by the Russian Federation after the occupation. Ukraine, in turn, declares that "the exhibits cannot be returned to the occupied territory, which is temporarily not under Ukrainian control, they must be transferred directly to the state of Ukraine."

In December 2016, the District Administrative Court of Amsterdam recognized the rights of Ukraine to the collection and ordered to transfer it to Kyiv. In March 2019, a new round of the case began – in the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.

On July 16, 2019, the Court of Appeal issued a preliminary decision and requested additional information on the dispute from Ukraine and the museums of Crimea.

The claim of the Crimean museums to the Dutch Allard Pierson Museum demanded that the collection be returned from the Netherlands to Crimea.

On October 28, 2020, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal satisfied the claim of Ukraine to challenge one of the judges in the case of the "scythian gold" ownership.