The protection provided by the Law on Museums is given further detail in a regulation of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers and an Order based on that law. The Order directs that the museum pieces are to be transported to the National Museum of History of Ukraine in Kiev, pending stabilization of the situation in Crimea. This is a temporary measure.
The Court of Appeal finds that the Ukrainian State was allowed to take such a temporary measure to protect its cultural heritage and notwithstanding the museums’ right of operational management. The public interests at stake are of great weight and this case is closely connected to the Ukrainian State. Though the regulations encroach on private legal relationships, they do so for the sake of cultural interests that outweigh the interests of the Crimean museums.
It makes no difference that the museum pieces are in the Netherlands at the moment. An article of Dutch law allows for precedence of these Ukrainian rules.