The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has no instruments for resolving the issue of the return of the collection of Scythian gold artifacts to Crimean museums, said Eleonora Mitrofanova, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO, TASS reports.
According to Mitrofanova, the Russian delegation has already studied the legal documents of the organizations and unfortunately could not find any opportunities for assisting in the court proceedings. She believes that the legal proceedings mean that collection of the Crimean museums will be stuck in the Netherlands for a long time to come.
The collection of more than 1,000 gold items representing ancient Scythian civilization, was sent to the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam in February 2014 for an exhibition titled "Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea." The artifacts came from five Ukrainian museums, four of which are located in Crimea.
Following Crimea’s split with Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has sought to have the museum items returned to Kiev.
Russkiy Mir Foundation Information Service
