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Allard Pierson Museum has to hand over the Crimean Treasures to the Ukrainian State

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Skip Navigation LinksGerechtshof Amsterdam > Nieuws > Allard Pierson Museum has to hand over the Crimean Treasures to the Ukrainian State
Amsterdam, 26 oktober 2021

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has ruled that the Allard Pierson Museum (APM) has to hand over the “Crimean Treasures” to the Ukrainian State. Its obligation to return the museum pieces to the Crimean museums has ended. This is the final judgment in the appeal that was lodged against a judgment of the Amsterdam District Court of 14 December 2016. The District Court also granted the claim of the Ukrainian State, but did so on different grounds.

Crimean Treasures


Both the Ukrainian State and four Crimean museums lay claim to the Crimean Treasures, a collection of  archaeological objects, museum pieces, that the APM obtained on loan from the Crimean museums for an exhibition in 2014. The objects were in Amsterdam when Crimea separated from Ukraine and joined Russia in 2014. It was not clear to the APM to whom the objects should be returned and it accordingly continued to hold the museum pieces pending a ruling by the courts.

The Dutch Heritage Act does not apply


In the first instance, the Amsterdam District Court decided that the Crimean Treasures had to be handed over to the Ukrainian State pursuant to the Dutch Heritage Act. The Court of Appeal makes a different finding. The Dutch Heritage Act does not apply in this situation. The museum pieces were brought to Germany and later to the Netherlands under valid export licences, issued by the competent authorities. Accordingly, the Ukrainian State cannot claim the Crimean Treasures on the basis of the Dutch Heritage Act.

Ownership is not decisive


The Ukrainian State owns the objects that belong to the collection of Tauric Chersonesos, one of the four museums. The Court of Appeal has been unable to ascertain whether the Ukrainian State owns the objects in the collections of the other three museums. However, it is not necessary to establish the ownership of the Ukrainian State or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. That is irrelevant to the decision the Court of Appeal has been asked to make, that is to whom the objects should be handed over.

Law of Ukraine on Museums and Museum Affairs


Although the museum pieces originate from Crimea and to that extent may be considered a part of Crimean cultural heritage, they are part of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian State as it has existed as an independent state since 1991. The museum pieces belong to the public part of the State Museum Fund of Ukraine. The Court of Appeal finds that the cultural interest that lies in preserving the museum pieces is a public interest of the Ukrainian State that carries great weight. The Ukrainian State has safeguarded this interest by adopting the Law on Museums and Museum Affairs in 1995. That law provides a protective regime. Even if the museum pieces continue to exist and stay undamaged, the Law on Museums has the purpose of preventing museum pieces such as these from leaving the Ukrainian State’s sphere of influence. There is a present danger of this occurring.  

Public interests of great weight

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. 


Handing over


Because it was reasonable for the APM to doubt - at any rate on 12 June 2014 - whether it had to return the museum pieces to the Crimean museums pursuant to the loan agreements, or to hand them over to the Ukrainian State, the APM was allowed to suspend the handing over of the objects. The Court of Appeal now rules that the rights of the Ukrainian State, based on the Law on Museums, the Regulation and the Order, take precedence. The contractual obligation cannot be performed. On the basis of a provision of Ukrainian law the AMP is no longer obliged to return the objects to the Crimean museums.  
The APM has to hand over the Crimean treasures to the Ukrainian State, for safekeeping until the situation in Crimea has stabilized.

End of proceedings at the Court of Appeal


This final judgment concludes the proceedings at the Court of Appeal. The District Court did not rule that its judgment was enforceable notwithstanding any remedy. The Court of Appeal’s decision on the point of enforceability is the same. The parties have the right to lodge an appeal at the Netherlands Supreme Court. 

(Dutch version)

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