SIMFEROPOL, October 27. /TASS/. Special storage conditions are needed for the artifacts of the Scythian gold collection from Crimean museums in Amsterdam, Director of the Scythian Naples Historical-Archaeological Museum Yuri Zaitsev reported on Wednesday.

"[Apart from the gold in the collection assembled for an exhibition in Europe], there are Chinese caskets, wooden vessels with animal figures, so all these artifacts require special storage conditions. We don’t really know their conditions now, after so many years [of being packed away in the storerooms of the Netherlands museum]. No one has seen it, and there is no information," Zaitsev said.

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal ruled on October 26 that the Scythian Gold collection should be handed over to Ukraine since it was "part of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian State" and belonged "to the public part of the State Museum Fund of Ukraine." Russia announced plans to fight the court's decision and Russia’s Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin handed down orders to examine the situation.

The Scythian Gold collection of over 2,000 items was on display at the Allard Pierson Museum of the University of Amsterdam between February and August 2014. After the peninsula reunited with Russia in March 2014, uncertainty over the collection arose as both Russia and Ukraine laid claims to the exhibits. In this regard, the University of Amsterdam suspended the collection’s handover until either the dispute was legally resolved or the parties came to terms. In December 2016, the Amsterdam District Court ruled that the Scythian gold treasures be returned to Ukraine based on Dutch laws and international regulations. In March 2017, Crimea’s museums filed an appeal against this decision. In March 2019, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal reversed the district court’s ruling but did not make a decision on the collection's ownership.