Amsterdam court rules to return 'Scythian gold' to Ukraine

December 14, 2016 (Interfax-Ukraine) Amsterdam District Administrative Court on Wednesday ruled that the Crimean museums exhibits from the "Crimea - the golden island in the Black Sea" collection (the so-called "Scythian gold") should be given back to Ukraine, the Culture Ministry of Ukraine has reported.

"This is official! The District Administrative Court of Amsterdam has just ruled to return the Crimean museum exhibits from the "Crimea - the golden island in the Black Sea" collection to the territory of Ukraine," the Culture Ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Media reported this ruling doesn't mean the exhibits will be immediately returned to Ukraine. The judges have ruled that the gold will stay in the Allard Pierson Museum for another three months, the time when the opposite side may file an appeal.

As reported, the exhibition, entitled "Crimea: the golden island in the Black Sea" at the Allard Pierson Museum, was formed from the collections of five museums, one of them in Kyiv and the other four in Crimea. Since the Netherlands have not recognized Crimea's reunification with Russia, which took place after the exhibition opened, a question arose as to who the collection should be returned to.

The ancient Scythian gold collection of items of the "Crimea The Golden Island of the Black Sea" exhibition in 2014.

On September 10, 2014, the Russian Culture Ministry said the Scythian gold items from Kyiv museums had been returned to Kyiv, the items from Crimean museums remained in Holland after the joint exhibition at the Amsterdam museum.

Kyiv insists that the items "should be handed over directly to the Ukrainian state."

On December 7, the Kyiv Pechersky District Court arrested the museum exhibits of the "Crimea - the golden island in the Black Sea" exhibition, which are in the Allard Pierson Museum (the Netherlands), submitted documents to Interpol to put the arrested property on the international wanted list.