MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands is highly unlikely to reverse its ruling to hand over the Scythian gold collection from Crimean museums to Ukraine, but the Russian side will continue its legal battle to return the collection, Russian presidential envoy for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy said on Monday.
Earlier, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld the verdict of the Amsterdam Appellate Court demanding that the Scythian gold collection be transferred to Ukraine.
"I don’t think that it is possible in the current situation to have the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands revoked. But we will make every legal effort to this end," he told a news conference.
He once again stressed that the Dutch court’s decision about the Scythian gold collection was politicized. "It is rather difficult to challenge the ruling of the Supreme Court. <…> Although they keep on saying that the judges are independent, but there is a political context in which these or those decisions are made," he added.
In June, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands turned down the Crimean museums’ appeal and ruled that the Scythian gold collection was to be handed over to Ukraine. The ruling drew a line under the nearly ten-year litigation. Under this ruling, the Allard Pierson Museum, which is responsible to the collection’s safety, will hand it over to Ukraine.
The Scythian Gold is a collection of more than 2,000 items that were put on display at an exhibition at the Allard Pierson Museum at the University of Amsterdam in February 2014 when Crimea was still part of Ukraine. The collection’s future came into doubt when Crimea reunited with Russia in March 2014. Crimea’s museums and Ukraine both laid claim to the collection. The University of Amsterdam, which oversees the Allard Pierson Museum's activities, put the handover procedure on hold until either the dispute was legally resolved or the parties came to terms.