Scythian artifacts returned to Ukraine after long dispute with Russia

More than a thousand artifacts, including a solid gold Scythian helmet and golden neck ornament, were on loan to Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum when Russian troops seized and annexed the peninsula in 2014. Both Ukraine and the museums located on the Moscow-controlled territory claimed ownership rights when the exhibition ended.

Ancient Scythian artifacts from museums in Russian-occupied Crimea have been returned to Ukraine after a legal dispute over ownership rights during which they spent almost a decade in the Netherlands, a Ukrainian museum said on Monday. More than a thousand artifacts, including a solid gold Scythian helmet and golden neck ornament, were on loan to Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum when Russian troops seized and annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Both Ukraine and the museums located on the Moscow-controlled territory claimed ownership rights when the exhibition ended. "After almost 10 years of court hearings, artifacts from four Crimean museums that were presented at the exhibition 'Crimea: gold and secrets of the Black Sea' in Amsterdam have returned to Ukraine. The Allard Pierson Museum handed them over to the National Museum of History of Ukraine," Ukraine's national museum said in a statement.

It said the collection would be stored in the national museum until the de-occupation of Crimea. The Allard Pierson Museum said the artifacts had been returned to Kyiv on Sunday. "This was a special case, in which cultural heritage became a victim of geopolitical developments," said Els van der Plas, director of the Allard Pierson. "We are pleased that clarity has emerged and that they have now been returned."

In June, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled the items should be returned to Ukraine. Kyiv sees the artifacts as part of its national heritage, while the Moscow-controlled museums said they had to return to the peninsula due to loan terms. Ukrainian customs services reported on Monday that a truck carrying "2.694 kg of cultural property" entered the 980 year-old Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, where a further identification process would take place.

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