Scythian gold returns to Ukraine from the Netherlands

This was reported by the National Museum of History of Ukraine on Facebook.

The Allard Pierson Museum has transferred them to the National Museum of History of Ukraine, where they will be stored until the de-occupation of Crimea.

According to the decree of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the collections of Crimean museums should be transferred to the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

According to the final decision of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, Ukraine had to pay the Allard Pierson Museum EUR 111,689 with interest for the entire period of storage of the collections of Crimean museums.

However, on July 5, at a joint meeting at the Allard Pierson Museum in the presence of the museum's director, representatives of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and two legal advisers to Ukraine, the director general of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, Fedir Androshchuk, proposed a plan for the transfer and transportation of the collections of Crimean museums to Ukraine.

After fulfilling the obligations undertaken by the National Museum of History of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Allard Pierson Museum refused the court-ordered payment in its favor.

"In November, the items from the Crimean museums were independently inspected, after which they were carefully packed in accordance with museum rules. Then the artifacts were transported to Kyiv. Now experts are examining the condition of these things. We are talking about 565 items, including ancient sculptures, Scythian and Sarmatian jewelry, Chinese lacquer boxes that are two thousand years old," the statement said.

What is known about the Scythian Gold collection?

The Scythian Gold exhibition includes over 560 items from the museum fund of Ukraine, which have been in the Netherlands since 2013. After the occupation of Crimea by Russia, Ukraine defended its right to the exhibits to prevent their transfer to museums controlled by the occupying power.

On October 26, 2021, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that the exhibits of the "Crimea. The Golden Island in the Black Sea" exhibition, which had been stored in museums on the peninsula before Russia's occupation of Crimea, should be returned to Ukraine.

Subsequently, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal to return the Scythian Gold to Ukraine.

"A long-awaited victory for Ukraine in the court of Amsterdam! Scythian gold will return to Ukraine. I am grateful to the court for a fair decision, and to the teams of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture for the result. We always return what is ours. First, we will return the Scythian gold, and then Crimea," Zelenskyy said.

And on June 9, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands approved a decision to return gold artifacts from Crimea to Ukraine.

Later, the Ministry of Culture reported that Ukrainians would be able to see the collection at the National Museum of History of Ukraine once it is returned.