MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russia has fair chances for a favorable court ruling on a return of Scythian gold items from a museum in Amsterdam to museums in Crimea, the Russian President's special envoy for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoi told Life news portal.
"There will be a court session on October 5 and from my point of view it leaves fair chances for a return of that gold to Crimean museums," he said. "If a different position had been accepted from the very start, they would not have returned to Russia."
"A very competent team of lawyers is working with us," Shvydkoi said. "We purposefully reduced the case to the level of relations between museums. In this sense, we have fair enough judiciary prospects."
The first hearing the Amsterdam district court will be held on October 5. The lawsuit was launched by the Crimean museums that filed it againt the University of Amsterdam in November 2014.
The items of Scythian gold were loaned to the Allard Pierson Museum, which reports to the university for an exhibition entitled 'Crimea: Gold and Secrets from the Black Sea', at the time when Crimea was part of Ukraine. However, its reunification with Russia took place in the course of the display.
In April 2016, the Amsterdam district court recognized Ukraine as a third party in the case, since the country was claiming its rights to litigeous objects.