Employees prepare items of ancient Crimean gold treasures ahead of their presentation to media, at Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, in Kyiv, on November 28, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ancient Crimean gold treasures returned to Kyiv on November 27, 2023 after being stuck in a Dutch museum for nine years, where they were on show when Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula in 2014. Years of legal battles ensued, with both Kyiv and Moscow-controlled Crimean museums filing suits that the jewels should be in their hands, before the Dutch Supreme Court ruled this summer they should go to Ukraine.
After nearly 10 years of legal dispute with Russia, a treasure trove of historical Ukrainian artifacts has been sent back to Kyiv from a museum in the Netherlands. The collection of artifacts was reportedly loaned for a Dutch exhibition from a number of Crimean museums before Russia's annexation of the peninsula back in 2014, which made its return a difficult and lengthy process.
In a statement released last Monday, Nov. 27, the National Museum of History of Ukraine said, "After almost 10 years of litigation, artifacts from four Crimean museums that were presented at the exhibition 'Crimea: Gold and Secretes of the Black Sea' in Amsterdam have returned to Ukraine."
Additionally, the collection comprises 565 objects that include antiquated sculptures, Scythian and Sarmatian jewelry, and ancient lacquer boxes from China that have been dated to be over 2,000 years old, all of which will be stored on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra territory until the "de-occupation of Crimea."
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Rostyslav Karandieiev, acting minister of policy on culture and information of Ukraine, told CNN that the return of the treasures is a "great historical victory" for the country. He also added that the prior exhibition in the Netherlands was held in order to showcase the history of Ukrainian Crimea, which meant that it is the "people of Ukraine" who should rightfully possess the collection.
Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum also released a statement on its website, confirming that it had safeguarded the collection during the legal battle that determined whether the artifacts should return to Ukraine or to one of the four Crimean museums under Russian control. Both of the parties involved claimed they had the right to ownership of the historical treasures.
However, in the end, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled in favor of returning the treasures to Ukraine, which it declared to be done last June 9.
The Allard Pierson Museum continued by saying that all of the objects concerned were "independently checked and carefully packed in accordance with museum rules" last October, before promptly arriving back in Kyiv on Sunday, Nov. 26.
