Ukraine accuses Russia of looting 2,300-year-old Scythian gold, artefacts

Ukrainian officials on Saturday accused Russia of looting thousands historical artefacts and damaging or destroying more than 250 cultural institutions across the war-torn eastern European country since the invasion began on February 24.

Among the thousands of artefacts allegedly stolen is a collection of Scythian gold that was allegedly looted from the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, the New York Times reported, citing Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov, who had earlier been kidnapped by Russian forces.

According to NYT, the collection, “one of the largest and most expensive collections in Ukraine,” was looted from the Melitopol museum by a man clad in a white coat with “long tweezers and special gloves,” who was accompanied by a squad of Russian soldiers.

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Additionally, Mariupol city officials also accused Russia of looting “more than 2,000 unique exhibits” from the besieged port city, including “a unique handwritten Torah scroll” and the “Gospel of 1811 made by the Venetian printing house for the Greeks of Mariupol.”

The allegations about Russian looting marks the latest flashpoint between Ukraine and Russia over the ownership of Scythian gold, which has tremendous symbolic value in Ukraine.

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over the ownership of Scythian gold dates back to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Museums in Crimea that housed large collections of Scythian gold had lent these collections to a museum in Amsterdam prior to Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

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After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Ukraine pleaded with international authorities to not return the Scythian gold to museums in Crimea, while Moscow demanded that the collections be returned.

Subsequently, after a long-drawn legal battle over rightful ownership of the collections, a Dutch court in 2021 ruled that Ukraine still had legal ownership over the trove of Scythian gold in Amsterdam, a decision that was hailed by Kyiv and slammed by Moscow.

For those unaware, Scythian gold refers to artefacts produced under the Scythian empire during the Iron Age, and some of the collections in Ukraine, including the one allegedly stolen from Melitopol, contain artefacts dating back to the fourth century BC.