MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2021) The Russian government hopes that the Netherlands will return to Russia a collection of 4,000 ancient Scythian relics that were brought to Amsterdam from museums in Crimea before it split off from Ukraine, a Russian presidential spokesperson said Monday.
"This issue is very complicated, but we would of course want to see our exhibits returned home," Dmitry Peskov told a news conference.
The Allard Pierson Museum was exhibiting the collection when people of the Crimea peninsula voted in a 2014 referendum to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia, in a move rejected by Ukraine and its European allies. The Dutch museum said it would await a court ruling before returning the treasures.
An Amsterdam district court ruled in 2016 to hand the artifacts over to Ukraine, but lawyers representing Crimean museums appealed the judgment. The court agreed in 2019 that a UNESCO convention invoked by Ukraine did not apply to the case. An Amsterdam appeals court is due to pass its judgment on Tuesday.
