Russia’s annexation of Crimea is having all kinds of unexpected consequences, including cultural ones.
An archaeological museum in Amsterdam is reluctant to return ancient exhibits on loan from Crimean museums before the March annexation.
Hundreds of treasures, including Scythian and Sarmatian golden adornments and weapons were on display in Bonne and Amsterdam since January and attracted 88,000 visitors. The exhibition closed on Aug. 31, and now the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam is not sure whether the exhibits should be returned to Crimea, Ukraine or neither of them.
While 565 exhibits that came from the four Crimean museums remain in Amsterdam, 19 items from Kyiv-based Jewelry Museum were returned
Now the lawyers of the Allard Pierson Museum are deciding whether the Crimean exhibits and other treasures insured for 1.5 million euros must be returned to Crimea.
The Museum of Historical Treasures’ director Liudmyla Strokova backs the idea of returning the items to Ukraine, not Russian-occupied Crimea.
“I hope it will be solved this way,” Strokova told the Kyiv Post.
She believes that, since permission to take the gold abroad was given by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, the items belong to Ukraine. According to Strokova, the Ukrainian side unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Dutch museum to give the Crimean treasures to the National Historical Museum of Ukraine.
On Aug. 31, the Ukrainians arrived to Netherlands to collect all of the gold, but were only allowed to take the exhibits that came from Kyiv.
Even though the Dutch government doesn’t recognize Crimea as part of Russia, the Allard Pierson Museum is a private institution of Amsterdam University.
The answer to the dispute may lie in law 5.1 of The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, adopted in 1954. The law forbids bringing any national historical property to the occupied land. Instead, the law rules that the occupying force must assist the national authorities in ensuring the protection and preservation of cultural values.
Valentyna Mordvintseva, Crimean archeologist and curator of the exhibition that traveled to Amsterdam and Bonne, says the treasures belong to Crimea.
“Those exhibits should be returned to the Crimean museums. Any other variants will increase the level of Crimeans’ distrust to Ukraine,” she said.
Strokova, however, reminds that some Ukrainian treasures of medieval Kyivan Rus times are stored in Moscow museums.
“The Egyptian and Greek collections are not authentically from the Netherlands, so should the Dutch museums send them back to the motherland?” she asks.
Kyiv Post staff writer Iryna Matviyishyn can be reached at [email protected].
