Amsterdam court ruling on Scythian gold due on Dec 14, this will be just midway - Ukrainian Culture Ministry
KYIV. Dec 1 (Interfax) - The dispute currently being heard by a district court in Amsterdam on whether items (Scythian gold) from Crimean museums which have been left in the custody of the Allard Pierson Museum (the Netherlands) should be returned to Ukraine is not expected to end any time soon, Ukraine's First Deputy Culture Minister Svetlana Fomenko said.
"On December 14 we will be receiving a decision by the District Court [of Amsterdam]. Regardless of what it will be, we understand that this is just half of our journey. The dispute will not be resolved in December. Of course, this will be a landmark ruling because it will show the fairness of the Dutch court," the deputy minister told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
For its part, the Ukrainian Culture Ministry has done all it could to secure the return of these items and now everything depends on the lawyers who will be representing Ukraine's interests in Amsterdam, Fomenko also said.
"We have changed the necessary quantity of regular acts, orders. We worked through many things regarding the transportation of cultural artifacts. So we did whatever was in the Culture Ministry's power," she said.
The exhibition, entitled "Crimea: the golden island in the Black Sea" at the Allard Pierson Museum, was formed from the collections of five museums, one of them in Kyiv and the other four in Crimea. Since the Netherlands have not recognized Crimea's reunification with Russia, which took place after the exhibition opened, a question arose as to who the collection should be returned to.
On September 10, 2014, the Russian Culture Ministry said the Scythian gold items from Kyiv museums had been returned to Kyiv, the items from Crimean museums remained in Holland after the joint exhibition at the Amsterdam museum.
In January the Amsterdam court held a first formal meeting as part of the legal process, in which the Crimean museums - which are now under Russian jurisdiction - demanded the return of the Scythian gold collection.
Kyiv insists that the items "should be handed over directly to the Ukrainian state."
Hearings on the Ukrainian lawsuit against the Allard Pierson Museum began at the Amsterdam district court on October 5, 2016. Ukraine's interests are represented in court by the law firm Bergh Stoop & Sanders NV.
