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Kiev claims Scythian gold will soon return to Ukraine

The Ukrainian Culture Ministry did not specify when and under what conditions this would happen

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Culture Ministry stated it has reached an agreement with the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam on the return of a collection of Scythian gold exhibited there.

"The Scythian gold will return to Ukraine very soon. The Ukrainian Culture Ministry and the Allard Pierson Museum have reached official agreements on the terms of returning the artifacts," the ministry said on its Telegram channel.

At the same time, the ministry did not specify when and under what conditions this would happen.

Scythian gold is a collection of more than 2,000 objects used in the exhibition "Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea," which was held from February to August 2014 at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. The hubbub occurred after Crimea's reunification with Russia in March 2014. Crimean museums and Ukraine have claimed their rights to the exhibits removed from the peninsula. In response, the University of Amsterdam, which curates the work of the Allard Pierson Museum, stopped the procedure of transferring the exhibits until an agreement is reached between the parties or until the issue is resolved legally.

This June, the Netherlands Supreme Court upheld the decision of Amsterdam's Court of Appeal to transfer the Scythian gold collection to Ukraine. Crimean senator Sergey Tsekov told TASS that this decision was not legal, as Scythian gold belongs to Crimean museums under all laws.