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Simferopol, December 23 (Interfax) - Twenty-six Crimean Tatar historical artifacts that ended up in Austria after being removed from Crimea by the Nazis during World War II were ceremonially returned to the Bakhchisarai Historical and Cultural Reserve on Monday, a Crimean Tatar representative body said on Wednesday.

"This handover was the first instance where Crimean Tatar artifacts stolen in the years of the Nazi occupation of Crimea were returned to Crimea. There remains in museum collections outside Crimea a significant number of such artifacts, which were removed by force or arbitrarily handed over by the Soviet leadership from the museum collection of Bakhchisarai between the 1950s and 1980s," the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People said in a report.

Bakhchisarai Reserve staff, scholars, historians, jewelers and members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the Bakhchisarai Regional Mejlis were present at Monday's ceremony, the report said.