Russia has opened a criminal case against the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, accusing them of “stealing” a collection of ancient artifacts from Crimea.
Russian authorities have announced the initiation of a criminal investigation into the case of the collection of historical artifacts from Crimea, a dispute that has been ongoing for nearly ten years and was amplified by Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. According to Dutch media, Moscow has opened a criminal case against the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, accusing them of “theft” in connection with the return of an extremely valuable collection to Kiev in 2023, according to nltimes.
The collection at the center of the dispute consists of 565 archaeological artifacts, including weapons, ornaments, and household items belonging to ancient civilizations that lived in Crimea – the Scythians, Goths, and Sarmatians. Most of the pieces date from Antiquity and the early Middle Ages and come from four museums located on the Crimean peninsula.
The Russian Investigative Committee, the main criminal investigation institution of the state, comparable to the FBI in the United States, claims to have identified “elements of crime” in the way the collection of archaeological objects was managed. The investigation targets, according to Russian prosecutors, the alleged “delayed return of cultural heritage exported from Russia”.
Details, HERE