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Return of Scythian gold to Crimea is legal matter to be solved by museums - Medinsky

The problem of where to return the artifacts sprang up immediately after Crimea’s reunification with Russia

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky ITAR-TASS/Valery Sharifulin

Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky

© ITAR-TASS/Valery Sharifulin

ST. PETERSBURG, August 04, 21:47 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told journalists on Monday that museums should use legal means to decide whether a Dutch museum should return a collection of Scythian gold to Crimean museums from where it was taken.

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“This is a matter of ordinary legal relations between Crimean museums and the Netherlands. I do not know what should happen to make politics interfere in this exclusively legal matter,” Medinsky said.

The collection that was loaned at the beginning of this year by museums in Crimea, then formally a part of Ukraine, is being exhibited in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam under the title of ‘Crimea. Gold and Mysteries of the Black Sea’.

The items on show in Amsterdam are pieces of goldsmithery, weapons, and household appliances revealing the rich history of the Crimean peninsula.

The problem of where to return the artifacts sprang up immediately after Crimea’s reunification with Russia. Rights to possession of the Scythian gold have been claimed by both Russia and Ukraine.

The exhibition in Amsterdam will stay open through to the end of August.

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