CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA
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“Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea. Chronicle of the struggle for the “Scythian gold” of Ukraine

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“Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea”- an exhibition project with this name was organized in 2013 with the participation of five Ukrainian museums: the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine (branch of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, Kyiv), the Central Museum of Tavrida (Simferopol), Bakhchisaray Historical and Cultural Reserve, Kerch Historical and Archaeological Reserve and National Reserve “Chersonesos Tavriya”.

CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEAThe exhibition was exhibited in two European museums. First in the Federal Republic of Germany (Rhineland Regional Museum, Bonn – Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, from July 3, 2013 to January 19, 2014), and from February 6 to May 28, 2014 – in the Kingdom of the Netherlands – Allard Pearson Archaeological Museum, University of Amsterdam – Allard Pierson Museum). In accordance with the Regulations on the Museum Fund of Ukraine, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of July 20, 2000 № 1147, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine approved the transfer of museum objects from the stock collections of these museums for display at the exhibition “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea “with a temporary transfer period from June 13, 2013 to June 12, 2014. The exhibition was dedicated to the ancient history of Crimea – from the period of Greek colonization (6th century BC).) to the early Middle Ages (6-7 centuries AD). The exhibition featured 19 exhibits from the Kyiv Museum of Historical Treasures and 565 exhibits from the Crimean museums.

Due to the wide public response in Germany, the Allard Pearson Museum appealed to Ukrainian museums and the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine with a proposal and request to extend the exhibition in the Netherlands until August 31, 2014. The Ministry of Culture did not object to the extension of the exhibition of objects from Ukrainian museums and reserves at the exhibition “Crimea.CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA

Golden Island in the Black Sea “, but noted that the final decision will be made after the submission of a package of relevant documents from each museum institution, as reported by the management of the Allard Pearson Museum. Ukrainian museums have prepared additional agreements to the contracts for the continuation of the exhibition; The agreements were signed by the directors of all Ukrainian participating museums on the opening day of the exhibition in Amsterdam on February 6, 2014.

However, on March 16, 2014, Russia was forcibly annexed to Crimea, and Crimean museums terminated relations with the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and Ukrainian institutions. Therefore, these museums did not carry out the procedure of prolongation of additional agreements (this was done only by the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine), and therefore neither the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine nor the customs authorities of Ukraine gave permission to Crimean museums to extend (until August 31, 2014) .

CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEAAccording to the Law of Ukraine “On Museums and Museum Affairs”, the Museum Fund of Ukraine, which includes the collections of all Crimean museums, is a national heritage and an integral part of the cultural heritage of Ukraine, which is protected by law. Museum objects, museum collections and museum collections of the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine are assigned to museums on the right of operative management. Given the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (and the city of Sevastopol), the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution № 113 of 23.03.2014 “On Amendments to the Regulations on the Museum Fund of Ukraine”. In particular, it provides: in case of force majeure or the threat of destruction, loss, damage or destruction of museum objects of the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine, the decision to transfer them to permanent or temporary storage,the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine shall accept a change in the term of temporary transfer or return of such items transferred for temporary storage outside Ukraine for the purpose of their display at exhibitions, restoration or scientific examination.

The Ministry of Culture has acknowledged the threat of losing museum objects of the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine, which are exhibited at the exhibition in the Netherlands. On March 31, 2014, the Ministry addressed the Allard Pearson Museum with a request to consider the possibility of early return to Ukraine of museum objects of the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine from the collections of the Museum of Historical Treasures and 4 Crimean museums. In addition, the Ministry of Culture informed the Allard Pearson Museum that the exhibits will be deposited in the National Museum of History of Ukraine until the situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is resolved.

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine promulgated Order № 292 of May 13, 2014, in which the National Museum of History was designated as the main custodian of all museum items of the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine in the amount of 565 museum items (2011 storage units) on display at the Allard Pearson Museum. Of Ukraine. Crimean museum institutions were informed about this in a special letter from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine (dated May 21, 2014).CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA

It should be noted that, approving the exhibition project “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea ”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands provided Ukrainian museums with special letters of guarantee on the preservation and timely return of museum objects to Ukraine. That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands explaining the legal grounds for returning the exhibits from the Crimean museums to the National Museum of History of Ukraine (Kyiv) and not to the Russian-occupied Crimea.

On May 9, 2014, the University of Amsterdam sent an official letter to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine stating that based on the Diplomatic Note, the explanatory note and the legal opinion, it recognized that exhibits from Crimean museums belonged to the State Museum of Ukraine and were state property of Ukraine. In addition, the letter stated that the Allard Pearson Museum will transfer the exhibits for storage to the National Museum of History of Ukraine and offer this museum to sign a new agreement with the Allard Pearson Museum on the basis of additional agreements previously concluded with Crimean museums to continue exhibiting Crimean objects. museums at the exhibition until August 31, 2014. Thus, the Allard Pearson Museum undertook to return the exhibits to Ukraine after the exhibition – to the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

The National Museum of History of Ukraine has prepared a draft additional agreement with the Allard Pearson Museum to extend the exhibition of archaeological objects from the Crimean museums at the exhibition in Amsterdam until August 31, 2014 with a temporary transfer until September 20, 2014. In order to hold bilateral meetings and negotiations to agree and sign this agreement, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine initiated a business trip of the Ukrainian delegation to Amsterdam consisting of the First Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine and Director General of the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, despite a series of talks with representatives of the Allard Pearson Museum and with government circles in the Netherlands with the active participation of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the issue could not be resolved. The Allard Pearson Museum refused to sign a new agreement with the National Museum of Ukrainian History and extend the exhibition until August 31, 2014, as the Allard Pearson Museum had enough additional agreements with Crimean museums that were signed on the opening day of the exhibition in Amsterdam on February 6, 2014.CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA Meanwhile, the permit for the temporary export of 565 exhibits from Ukraine has coincided, most of which are articles of precious metals (insurance value of 1,438,625 euros), donated to the exhibition by four Crimean museum institutions. Therefore, from June 13, 2014, in accordance with Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine “On export, import and return of cultural property”, these museum objects were considered to be illegally exported from the territory of Ukraine.

In connection with the position of the Allard Pearson Museum on the Crimean part of the exhibition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands on June 20, 2014, stating that since June 13, 2014, part of the exhibition immediate return to Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also expressed a request not to allow the export of museum objects from the Netherlands to the Crimea without the permission of the Ukrainian side.

In order to take measures to resolve disputes over the return of cultural property to Ukraine, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, as the body responsible for protecting the rights and interests of Ukraine abroad, established an interagency working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Museum of History of Ukraine and the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, etc.

On August 20, 2014, the Allard Pearson Museum published an official statement regarding the Ukrainian exhibits from the Crimean museums, which are presented at the exhibition “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea (in the Dutch version of “Crimea: Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea”), that the museum will refrain from returning the exhibits to any party until a competent court or arbitration award or until an agreement is reached between Kiev and Crimea on this issue. In this way, the museum tried to avoid, on the one hand, possible contractual claims from individual Crimean museums, and, on the other hand, property claims from the state of Ukraine.

19 exhibits from the collection of the Kyiv Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, according to an additional agreement to extend the exhibition until August 31, 2014, concluded by the Allard Pearson Museum with the National Museum of History of Ukraine, were returned to Ukraine on September 4, 2014.

At the end of November 2014, with the participation of an observer from Ukraine and representatives of the Crimean museums, the exhibition was finally dismantled, and the exhibits were moved to a separate storage, where they should be stored until the end of the trial.

On November 19, 2014, representatives of Crimean museums filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Amsterdam (Kingdom of the Netherlands) with the Allard Pearson Museum to return the exhibits to the relevant Crimean museums, ie to the occupied Crimea. For its part, Ukraine filed a claim with the Amsterdam District Court for the state’s admission to the trial as the Plaintiff in the case of the return of some of the exhibits of the exhibition. On April 8, 2015, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine received a copy of the decision of the District Court of Amsterdam, according to which the state of Ukraine, represented by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, was allowed to participate in the trial.CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEA

Legal position of Ukraine: Museum exhibits are exclusively state property of Ukraine and part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine. They are illegally kept by the Allard Pearson Museum in the Netherlands and must be returned to the territory of Ukraine, namely to Kyiv (to the National Museum of History of Ukraine), and not to the part of Ukraine (Crimea) temporarily occupied by Russia. In fact, claims Ukraine is based on “two pillars”, namely:
– Regulation of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970 (including and position the Implementation Act on the basis of which this Convention was adopted in the Kingdom of the Netherlands);
– provisions of the Ukrainian legislation which fix the right of ownership of the state on disputable museum objects.

The position of the Crimean museums is that (1) they are the legal and authorized owners of the collections and in accordance with the contracts and additional agreements they have concluded with the Allard Pearson Museum, the exhibits must be returned to the Crimea; (2) all archaeological objects have been found and preserved in the Crimea for many years; in addition, museums consider it unacceptable to separate collections. A panel of three judges from the Amsterdam District Court heard the case at a hearing on 5 October 2016. Representation and protection of Ukraine’s interests in the case of Ukraine’s lawsuit against the Allard Pearson Museum is carried out by the law firm Bergh Stoop & Sanders NV (Kingdom of the Netherlands).

CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEAOn December 14, 2016, the District Court of Amsterdam announced the decision in the case on the claim of the state of Ukraine to the Allard Pearson Museum, recognizing that the museum collection of the exhibition “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea “is to be returned to the territory of Ukraine, namely to Kyiv (National Museum of History of Ukraine). The court found that the objects of the disputed museum collection were cultural values ​​that were illegally in the territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The court emphasized that the museum artifacts belonged to the State of Ukraine, which had the right to demand the return of the museum collection under the UNESCO Convention on Measures to Prohibit and Prevent the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property in 1970, including The Implementing Act under which this Convention was adopted in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.According to these documents, the Contracting States, and hence the Netherlands, recognize the inalienable right of each State Party to classify and declare certain cultural property inalienable, which is therefore not exported, and to facilitate the return of property previously exported. The court stressed that it has no authority to recognize the property right to the museum collection, and therefore, after the cultural values ​​are returned to the territory of Ukraine, the issue of ownership of museum exhibits should be decided by the courts of Ukraine under substantive law of Ukraine. Representatives of the Crimean museums on January 16, 2017 filed an appeal against this decision of the District Court of Amsterdam.Recognize the inalienable right of each State Party to classify and declare certain cultural property inalienable, which is therefore not exported, and to facilitate the return of property previously exported. The court stressed that it has no authority to recognize the property right to the museum collection, and therefore, after the cultural values ​​are returned to the territory of Ukraine, the issue of ownership of museum exhibits should be decided by the courts of Ukraine under substantive law of Ukraine. Representatives of the Crimean museums on January 16, 2017 filed an appeal against this decision of the District Court of Amsterdam.Recognize the inalienable right of each State Party to classify and declare certain cultural property inalienable, which is therefore not exported, and to facilitate the return of property previously exported. The court stressed that it has no authority to recognize the property right to the museum collection, and therefore, after the cultural values ​​are returned to the territory of Ukraine, the issue of ownership of museum exhibits should be decided by the courts of Ukraine under substantive law of Ukraine. Representatives of the Crimean museums on January 16, 2017 filed an appeal against this decision of the District Court of Amsterdam.as cultural values ​​are returned to the territory of Ukraine, the issue of ownership of museum exhibits should be decided by the courts of Ukraine under the substantive law of Ukraine. Representatives of the Crimean museums on January 16, 2017 filed an appeal against this decision of the District Court of Amsterdam.as cultural values ​​are returned to the territory of Ukraine, the issue of ownership of museum exhibits should be decided by the courts of Ukraine under the substantive law of Ukraine. Representatives of the Crimean museums on January 16, 2017 filed an appeal against this decision of the District Court of Amsterdam.

On March 11, 2019, a hearing was held in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam. The court announced that the decision will be made on June 11, 2019 at 11 o’clock local time without a public hearing (later the court changed the date of the decision to July 16, 2019). As it became known, on July 16 the court made only an interim decision, requiring the parties to provide additional arguments within two months. At the same time, the decisive positions of the court of previous instance, which in December 2016 decided to return all items of the collection to Ukraine, were also rejected. Therefore, the final decision, the appellate court said, can be made within six to nine months.

Thus, the decision of the fate of the so-called “Scythian gold” will be delayed for another one and a half to two years. All this time, exhibits from 4 museums of the Crimea will continue to be stored in a separate repository of the Archaeological Museum of Allard Pearson. That is, these exhibits will remain “hostages” in a state that recognizes Crimea as Ukrainian, but for 5 years can not dare to resolve the question – “where to return archaeological treasures from Ukrainian museums – in Kiev or in the occupied Crimea.”

Postscript

CRIMEA. GOLDEN ISLAND IN THE BLACK SEAThis case has no analogues in European jurisprudence. And that is why decisions on this issue are very complex and unpredictable, because they, these decisions, can have further “undesirable” consequences in controversial issues about the cultural heritage of certain countries, which is stored in museums around the world. Therefore, based on this situation, it is probably necessary to review international law in the field of protection of cultural values ​​and make appropriate clearer adjustments. This also applies to the legislation of Ukraine in the museum sphere.

Exhibition “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea “, in the Dutch interpretation – Crimea. Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea “was a great success in both Germany and the Netherlands. Almost 100,000 visitors got acquainted with the exhibition. I think this was significantly facilitated by the events that took place in 2014 in Ukraine. All materials from the Crimean museum institutions come from archeological excavations on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. It should be noted that most of them were obtained during archaeological research in the 2000s, carried out under the permits issued by the state of Ukraine to conduct such research. Among the materials: finds from ancient cities and settlements – Chersonese, Pantikapaion, Tiritaka, Artesian; late Scythian cemeteries of the 3rd century. B.C. – 3 st. not. – Levadki, Ust-Alma; Gothic cemeteries 5-7 centuries. not. – Suvlu-Kaya, Dzhurg-Oba, Neyzats, near the village of Radiant.

The exhibition presented Crimea as a unique European region, which for thousands of years was not an isolated territory, but a place of exchange, connections and communications between East and West, between Greek civilization, the Roman Empire, the nomadic steppe and China, between settled, urban and steppe inhabitants. . The cultural richness of the peninsula was represented not only by numerous decorative items made of gold and silver, but also by a wide range of Greek architecture, sculpture, ceramics and finds from the mounds of nomads.

The decoration of the exhibition were Chinese lacquered boxes of the 1st century. not. Among the rich burials of the South-Western Crimea (Ust-Alminsky Cemetery) are sensational archeological finds, once restored in Japan by the world-famous master and restorer of lacquered products, Mr. Shosai Kitamura, whose title in his native language sounds like “Japan’s national treasure.” It is from these findings and the history of their restoration that the exhibition project “Crimea. Golden Island in the Black Sea.

Lyudmyla STROKOVA, Director General of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art, Sights of Ukraine: National Heritage magazine, 2019.

Published in the newspaper “Crimean room” №29-30, №31-32 for 2019

The project was implemented with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation

Lyudmila Strokova

General Director of the National Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art

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