Employees of the Investigative Committee are interviewing those involved in the removal of Scythian gold from the territory of Crimea and finding out what was done to return the collection from the Netherlands, said Alexander Molokhov, deputy head of the working group on international legal issues at the permanent mission of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation.
A pre-investigation check into the theft of the collection is currently being carried out in Russia, he said. “There are specific officials who gave instructions. They had to organize the transfer and registration of this collection as an integral part of the museum fund of the Russian Federation to the museum fund of our country. This was not done in a timely manner,” said Alexander Molokhov.
Crimean authorities consider the decision to transfer the collection to Ukraine illegal. The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, asked to involve the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in the process.
However, most likely, only Crimean museums will file a complaint with the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, because “they don’t want Russia to file a complaint,” said Alexander Molokhov. “The Department for International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office opposed it. Officials are simply afraid to take responsibility, leaving museums alone with Ukraine and Dutch justice,” he claims.
Let us recall that about 2 thousand objects from four Crimean museums were sent to the exhibition “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea” at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam in February 2014, before the annexation of the peninsula to Russia. Ukraine claimed rights to the collection, and at the end of October 2021, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that it should be transferred to Kyiv.
A pre-investigation check into the theft of the collection is currently being carried out in Russia, he said. “There are specific officials who gave instructions. They had to organize the transfer and registration of this collection as an integral part of the museum fund of the Russian Federation to the museum fund of our country. This was not done in a timely manner,” said Alexander Molokhov.
Crimean authorities consider the decision to transfer the collection to Ukraine illegal. The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, asked to involve the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in the process.
However, most likely, only Crimean museums will file a complaint with the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, because “they don’t want Russia to file a complaint,” said Alexander Molokhov. “The Department for International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office opposed it. Officials are simply afraid to take responsibility, leaving museums alone with Ukraine and Dutch justice,” he claims.
Let us recall that about 2 thousand objects from four Crimean museums were sent to the exhibition “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea” at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam in February 2014, before the annexation of the peninsula to Russia. Ukraine claimed rights to the collection, and at the end of October 2021, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled that it should be transferred to Kyiv.
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