Scythian gold may return to the museums of Crimea following the consideration of an appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court. TASS Referring to Dutch lawyer Michel van Leeuwen.
Van Leeuwen previously represented the interests of cultural institutions. “He who laughs last laughs best. There have been cases, including in my practice, where one side won in first instance and on appeal, where the Attorney General ruled in favor of the same party, and the case was eventually won by the other party,” van Leeuwen explained.
The collection, which has been in the Netherlands since 2014, includes nearly 2,000 unique artifacts from the Crimean museums. The collection was taken to an exhibition at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam in early February 2014, before Crimea was annexed to Russia. In August 2014, a museum in the Netherlands decided not to transfer exhibits to Ukraine or Crimea until a competent judge’s decision or agreement between the parties.
On October 26, 2021, the Supreme Court in the Dutch capital authorized the transfer of “Scythian gold” to Ukraine. In response, the museums of Crimea filed an appeal to the European country’s Supreme Court in January 2022. The administrative process regarding the incident has been initiated.
Formerly at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation declarationThat they hoped for the “Scythian gold” to be returned to Russia by a Supreme Court decision.