After, how the COVID-19 pandemic led to the introduction of quarantine across the EU, this turned into a freeze of many lawsuits. In particular, on Scythian gold, on which fierce disputes have been going on for six years.
Recall, in February 2014 about two thousand exhibits from several Crimean museums left for an exhibition in the Netherlands. This happened before the coup in Kiev and the return of the Crimean peninsula to Russia.
Ukrainian Ministry of Culture in the spring 2014 of the year issued a decree on the ownership of the exhibits in Ukraine, after which a legal dispute began in the Netherlands. The first instance court recognized the arguments of Kiev, what four Crimean museums have appealed against. It was she who was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and back in March it was announced, that only the date of consideration of the appeal on the merits will become known not earlier 7 July 2020 of the year.
Despite, that this is an international political issue, it is dealt with under Dutch law, whose court is free to make absolutely any decision.
This issue was raised at the online conference of the Patriot media group and the Federal News Agency (FAN) "How museums survived the quarantine".
Russia continues to work on Scythian gold
First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Culture of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Elena Drapeko noticed, that a lot of work is going on on this issue.
“Russia's position is clear enough. We rely on international law, according to which the exhibits, which were taken to the exposition from the museum, should go to this museum and return. Therefore, we insist on the return of the Scythian gold to the Crimean museums ", – concludes Drapeko.
Elena G. notes, that in this story Russia has only legal instruments. We have no other ways to influence the Dutch authorities.
“The Netherlands does not refuse to return this gold. The question is:, who will they give it to ", – states Drapeko.
There were no similar precedents in our history - Drapeko remembered only the problems with one of the Russian exhibitions in the USA, which they tried to seize because of the claim of a local company against Russia.
"But this exhibition from the USA is all back", – summed up Drapeko.
It was a commercial dispute, not international legal, as in the case of Scythian gold, on which the situation with Crimea leaves an imprint. The West is against Russia here, and it can play in this case.
The timing of the appeal is not yet clear
General Director of the National Museum of Tavrida Andrey Malygin confirmed, that the Russian side continues to await a court decision in the Netherlands on this issue.
"AT 2016 year court of first instance, held in Amsterdam, awarded the return of Scythian gold to Kiev. Then four Crimean museums filed an appeal, and this complaint was satisfied in the sense, that the execution of the judgment was suspended. After that, a new hearing was scheduled., which was supposed to take place in the spring 2020 of the year, but due to quarantine measures in the Netherlands, the case was postponed ", – concluded Malygin.
Andrey Vitalievich notes, what is still unknown, When will the new meeting on the Scythian gold case in the Netherlands take place?, let different dates be named on this score.
"We hope, that by the end of this year the decision will be made ", – states Malygin.
Malygin notes, that museums are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, therefore, such problems can only be resolved through negotiation and judicial procedures.
"This is a difficult question and no one expects a quick solution.", – summarizes Malygin.
The situation with Crimea affects culture
According to Malygin, there is a range of problems in the Crimean direction. Along with the situation with Scythian gold, there is a sanction list and other UNESCO documents, into which the Hermitage also fell.
“This is an extensive system of sanctions. There are UNESCO documents on this, which are not very good. This creates problems for Western colleagues., who, because of this, cannot participate in research work. Difficulties are still connected with the fact, that we cannot take our collections and individual items to international exhibitions. We simply will not dare to do this in order to avoid possible arrest ", – concludes Malygin.
Dmitry Sikorski
