Dutch court: Crimean treasures must be sent to Ukraine

By ALEKSANDAR FURTULA and MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

AMSTERDAM (AP) — An Amsterdam appeals court has ruled that a trove of historical treasures from Crimea that have been stored for years at a Dutch museum must be given to Ukraine. The court said that the artifacts are “part of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian state.” The judgment can be appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court. Tuesday’s ruling upheld a lower court’s decision and was the latest development in a protracted legal tug-of-war about the fate of the artifacts that stems from Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a month after the Allard Pierson Museum opened the “Crimea — Gold and secrets of the Black Sea” exhibition, sparking a dispute over where the borrowed treasures should be returned to.