Ukraine insists that the exhibits which were on display at the exhibition, "Crimea: a Gold Island in the Black Sea," should be stored temporarily with Kyiv museums until legal claims have been settled, said Ukrainian Culture Minister Yevhen Nischuk.
“We insist that all the Scythian gold be handed over for temporary storage to Kyiv, the Historical and Arts Museums, depending on exhibits proper, until the situation around Crimea has been clarified,” he told a press conference in Kyiv on Aug. 21.
It was reported that the Ukrainian Culture Ministry has filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands to defend Kyiv’s claim to the Scythian gold.
The exhibition opened at the Allard Pierson Museum of the archeological museum at Amsterdam University in early February. It included collections from five museums – one in Kyiv and four in Crimea. It displayed over 500 archeological finds that included artifacts of Scythian gold, a ceremonial helmet, precious stones, swords, armors, home ware of the ancient Greeks and Scyathians.
Among the most valuable exhibits from the collection of the Central Taurida Museum were the items dating back to the late-Scythian and Alanic Periods: a Scythian marquis dome in the form of a griffon, a Scythian bronze pot and horse accessories, vessels in the form of sheep from the Neusatz necropolis.
Since the Netherlands does not recognize Crimea’s union with Russia, which took place after the exhibition opened, the question now is who the collection should be returned to after the exhibition closes in August.
In late March the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry asked the Netherlands to guarantee the return of the Crimean museums’ exhibits to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Crimea has threatened to discontinue inter-museum cooperation with Europe, if its collection of Scythian gold is not returned to those of the peninsula’s museums that made it available, according to the official Web site of the Crimean State Council.
