Crimea Gold exhibition opens in Moscow with accent on unlawful European wardship

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. An exhibition titled "The Crimean Gold: ‘Civilized’ Europe Is Stealing Russian Treasures," dedicated to the Crimean artifacts being held unlawfully by the Netherlands, has opened in Moscow, a TASS correspondent reports.

The exhibition is centered around an unprecedented decision made by foreign courts, which refused to return the unique museum collection of the Museum-Preserve Tauric Chersonese and other Crimean museums to the peninsula.

As many as 16 stands are dedicated to valuable historical relics, which have been ripped from their home, and there are dozens of them. Photographs of the relics are accompanied by red inscriptions reading "Stolen" alongside historians’ commentaries. There are quotes from the Church Fathers’ speeches or from the Bible at the bottom of each stand. "Nor thieves, nor the greedy, <…> nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God," says an inscription at the bottom of one stand. The words of Prophet Isaiah, Gregory Palamas, Paul the Apostle, Elder Anthony of Optina and others are quoted.

"This cultural heritage belongs to all mankind, while it’s the job of Crimean museums to preserve them," Mikhail Myagkov, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society, said at the exhibition opening.

About treasures

In 2013, Germany’s University of Bonn and the Netherlands’ Allard Pierson Museum came to terms with the Kerch Historical and Cultural Museum-Preserve, the State Museum-Preserve Tauric Chersonese, the Bakhchisaray Historical, Cultural and Archaeological Museum-Reserve, and the Tavrida Central Museum to hold an exhibition titled "Crimea - Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea." Over 580 exhibits (around 2,000 various items) brought from the Crimean museums were on display in the Netherlands.

After the end of the exhibition on September 25, 2014, the European museums refused to return the exhibits, which did not belong to them, thus grossly violating contractual obligations for political gain of countries unfriendly to Russia. The attempts to seek justice in foreign courts were doomed to failure due to European judges’ political bias.