According to Ukraine, Russians are transferring Crimean treasures to Moscow

In Ukraine , territorial contestation with the use of arms is being joined by a cultural battle. It was in late June that the Ukrainian National Resistance Center published a document from the Russian administration in Crimea, the “Republic of Crimea” (as the peninsula’s government called itself after the military occupation by Russian Federation troops 10 years ago), issued to cultural bodies to transfer Crimean museum collections to Moscow. According to Ukraine, more than 10 million cultural assets have already been moved.

The Ukrainian Center of National Resistance is an organization linked to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, and came into possession of the document in mid-June: the text states that the “evacuation” of museum collections to Russia was requested, signed by the Minister of Culture of the “Republic of Crimea” last May 31. The minister also issues directives about drawing up “a list of places for the evacuation of valuable cultural property in case of fighting or destruction” and sharing inventories with Russian authorities.

According to the Ukrainian NGO Argo, reports the French newspaper Le Journal des Arts, this integration goes back several years, as it was in 2014 and with the invasion of Crimea that some museums on the peninsula had pooled their inventories.

The document, the Resistance Center points out, does not indicate the reasons and locations for the possible removal of valuables, but there is a high risk that the most valuable specimens will be transported from Crimea to territories that are officially recognized internationally as part of the Russian Federation. Museum administrations were given time to respond until July 1 this year. Another point in the letter, the Resistance Center points out, indicates that at least some of the cultural and historical monuments will be taken out of the peninsula. “It follows,” the Resistance Center writes in a note, “that the Russians are trying to speed up the process of typology and evaluation of museum exhibits in Crimea. Museum workers in Crimea create electronic records of artworks and historical monuments and transfer the information to the Russian Federation’s electronic museum fund.” Ukraine also points out that Russian scholars involved in illegal activities should also be held accountable for their actions. Volunteers of the “Argo” project are engaged in a systematic study of Russian crimes in the cultural sector.

In ten years already several Crimean collections have been transferred to Russia after its annexation: according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, as of 2015 there were fewer than 1.2 million museum pieces left in Crimea out of the 12 million recorded before the invasion.

In contrast, the so-called “Scythian gold,” an exceptional collection displayed in 2014 in Amsterdam and then blocked in the Netherlands by Crimea’s annexation, will be returned to Ukraine upon the decision of a Dutch court. But Russia has filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), attached to the Council of Europe, in February 2024 seeking the return of the collection to Crimea.

In late March 2024, the Russian authorities announced that the ECHR found the case admissible. It should be noted that the Russian Federation was excluded from the Council of Europe in March 2022 and that the request officially came from the Crimean museums and not the Russian state. At the same time, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has just issued three resolutions recognizing Russia’s destruction of Ukrainian heritage. We still have to wait for the decision of the European Court of Human Rights.

Pictured: the Russian document published on the website of the National Resistance Center of Ukraine.

According to Ukraine, Russians are transferring Crimean treasures to Moscow

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