The court in Amsterdam after a seven-year trial handed over the Scythian gold to Ukraine

According to RIA Novosti , the court decided that the jewelry was the property of Ukraine.

"Although the objects originate from Crimea, ... they are part of Ukraine's heritage after it became independent in 1991," the news agency quoted the judge as saying.

Legal proceedings around Scythian gold dragged on for more than seven years. They began after the collection of gold of the Scythian era in the history of the Crimea (VII-III centuries BC) from four Crimean museums was taken to the exhibition at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam in early February 2014. It contained about 2 thousand artifacts. Artistic gold items were characteristic of that era among many peoples of the Black Sea region and the Balkans. In particular, significant collections of finds were collected in Greece and Bulgaria.

However, shortly after the collection was exported to the Netherlands, a referendum was held in Crimea, following which the peninsula became part of Russia.

At the end of August 2014, the exhibition was officially closed. By the time it was time to return the exhibits, a dispute arose between Russia and Ukraine over the ownership of the treasures. And then the Dutch museum decided not to rush with the issuance of artifacts, but to wait for an agreement between the parties or a court decision. So the collection remained in storage at the Allard Pearson Museum.

In 2016, the Amsterdam District Court ruled to transfer the collection to Kiev. The Ukrainian authorities welcomed the court's decision. However, the leadership of Crimea, having changed lawyers, filed an appeal. However, the new decision was also made in favor of Ukraine.

Having learned about the decision of the appellate instance, the head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, called the incident "illegal and outrageous, covering up a raider seizure." He stated that Scythian gold was found in the Crimean land, where it had lain for many hundreds of years, therefore it is the property of all Crimeans and should be returned .