THE FIRST SHADOWS OF MORNING UKRAINE AND CRIMEA

In October 2021, the ownership of a Crimean gold haul was finally settled by the highest Dutch appeal court.

The collection, including a solid gold Scythian helmet and a golden neck ornament which each weighed more than 1kg, was on display in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam in 2014 when Crimea was annexed by Russia after being previously part of Ukraine for more than 300 years. Crimea has a land connection with Ukraine and has since 2014 been connected to Russia by a bridge.

The Dutch court ruled that the collection was the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian state. It belonged to Ukraine because Crimea was not considered a sovereign state under international law. Although the pieces had been discovered in Crimea and could be regarded as of Crimean heritage, they were part of Ukrainian heritage because it had existed as an independent state since 1991 and the annexation of Crimea was not recognised internationally as making Crimea part of Russia.

President Zelensky of Ukraine was delighted the Scythian gold would return to Ukraine. “After the Scythian gold, we’ll get Crimea back too”, he said.

Alexei Levykin, head of the Russian State Historical Museum in Moscow said “Such biased judicial rulings might eventually put an end to inter-museum exchanges.”

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