INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ancient Crimean gold treasures returned to Kyiv Monday after being held in a Dutch museum for nine years, where they were on show when
Pierson museum when they were suddenly at the center of a geopolitical crisis following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.Years of legal
battles ensued, with museums in Crimea controlled by both Kyiv and Moscow filing suits that the jewels should be in their hands
The Dutch Supreme Court ruled this summer they should be transferred to Ukraine."After almost 10 years of trials, artifacts from four
returned to Ukraine," the National Museum of the History of Ukraine (NMHU) said on its website."They will be kept in the NMHU until the
de-occupation of Crimea," it added.Their return comes 21 months into Moscow's invasion, and is a symbolic victory for Kyiv, which has
Crimea, territory which it claims as its own."It belongs to Crimea, it should be there," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday in
response to the jewels arriving in Ukraine.The treasures were kept at the Allard Pierson museum throughout the legal battles, awaiting a
ruling.In June, the Netherlands' top court ruled they should be handed to Ukraine, and not to the four Crimean museums."This was a special
case, in which cultural heritage became a victim of geopolitical developments," Allard Pierson director Els van der Plas said on the
museum's website.She said that, during the legal battles, the museum "focused on safely storing the artifacts until the time came to return
them to their rightful owner.""We are pleased that clarity has emerged and that they have now been returned," she added.
