Scythian jewelry worth 60 million euros taken from Ukraine found in Madrid (photos and video)
In Spain, National Police officers in a joint operation with the Security Service of Ukraine in Madrid seized gold jewelry of "significant historical and economic value" worth more than 60 million euros. They also seized 10 historical gold coins.
According to Crónica Balear, three Spanish citizens and two Ukrainian citizens were detained who created a criminal network aimed at trafficking in cultural property from Ukraine.
It is noted that these jewelry were stolen and illegally exported from Ukraine. They tried to sell them in Madrid.
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The investigation involved the offices of the Attachés for Internal Affairs of Bulgaria, Ukraine, Albania, North Macedonia and Cyprus, as well as the International Cooperation Department.
According to the Spanish National Police, the first investigations began when agents learned that a series of gold jewelry of great historical and economic value from Ukraine was being sold by a Ukrainian citizen living in Madrid.
These items were included in the capital of various commercial companies created specifically to give them a legal appearance and thus facilitate their sale by a group of investors.
To clarify the origin of the items, they were accompanied by documents in Ukrainian, English and Spanish confirming that they belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the same time, the criminal group transferred the property and the ability to dispose of it to an Orthodox priest living in Madrid.
When Spanish experts on cultural property prepared reports and evaluated the jewelry, the value of the jewelry reached more than 60 million euros.
In particular, the criminals tried to sell a gold belt with rams' heads, which was stored in a safe in Madrid. After that, the police found out that there were other items with similar characteristics among the items being examined by cultural property experts.
Investigators found out that these jewelry were displayed at an exhibition held in a museum in Kyiv from 2009 to 2013. After the exhibition, the jewelry ended up in the possession of an Orthodox priest, who, with the help of intermediaries, forged documents and obtained ownership of them. The jewelry was illegally exported from Ukraine by May 2016.
Experts noted that these jewelry and coins belong to the Greco-Scythian culture. They were made in the VIII-IV centuries BC.
As a reminder, on June 9, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld the decision of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal of October 2021 regarding Scythian gold. It will be returned to Ukraine.
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