SIMFEROPOL – The date of the hearing at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal of a civil dispute concerning the so-called Scythian gold will be determined in July, the Central Museum of Tavrida, which has had a part of its exhibit held in Amsterdam, told Interfax on March 20.
“The court hearing has been delayed. The date of the new hearing will be announced on July 7,” museum director Andrey Malgin said.
The postponement may have been caused by the COVID-2019 coronavirus pandemic, he said.
The Dutch court earlier extended deadlines for submittals of documents in the Scythian Gold case until March 3. The date of the court hearing was due to be determined after that.
Four Crimean museums – the Kerch Historic-Cultural Reserve (which later became part of Eastern-Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum Preserve), the Central Museum of Tavrida, the Historical, Cultural, and Archaeological Museum-Reserve in Bakhchisarai, and the Khersones Tavriysky (Chersonesus) National Reserve – sent a collection including Scythian gold artifacts to Bonn in 2013, before Russia occupied Crimea, and later to Amsterdam. The display additionally contained items from a Kyiv museum.
Since the Netherlands refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, the question arose of whom the collection should be returned to after the exhibition’s closure in August 2014.
The lawsuit against the Dutch Allard Pierson Museum contained a demand for the collection to be returned from the Netherlands to Crimea.
A district court in Amsterdam ruled on Dec. 14, 2016 that the Scythian gold collection must be returned to Kyiv. The Crimean museums filed an appeal on Jan. 16, 2017. The hearing of the case began in the Amsterdam Court of Appeals in March 2019.
The Court of Appeals requested additional information on July 16, 2019. It was reported that a final decision might be given 6-9 months later. In September, the Crimean party said the documents requested by the court had been submitted through lawyers.
The estimated insurance value of the gold is some two million euros, while the real value of the artifacts is much higher, Crimean Culture Minister Arina Novoselskaya said earlier.
