The United States handed over 11 ancient historical artifacts taken by the Russians to Ukraine
Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi and US Deputy Secretary of National Security for Strategy, Policy and Planning Robert Silvers
Photo by Volodymyr IlchenkoUkrinform
on monday September 23American diplomats handed over cultural and historical artifacts stolen by the Russian invaders to Ukraine.
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This happened during the visit of the new Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytskyi to the USA, reports the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications.
US Deputy Secretary of National Security for Strategy Robert Silvers handed Tochytskyi four medieval iron sabers, dated to the 9th–13th centuries, and several unidentified objects. Probably, the Russians took them out of the temporarily occupied territories.
The process of signing an agreement on the transfer of artifacts.
Photo by Volodymyr IlchenkoUkrinform
“Their [артефакти, – УП.Культура] was discovered when several Customs and Border Protection officers at an international post office in Newark, New Jersey saw a package purporting to contain a barbecue kit.” – noted Robert Silvers.
Subsequently, the customs officials handed over the photos of the found items to experts from the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv for verification. Then it was established that sabers are part of cultural heritage.
Iron sabers are dated to the IX-XIII centuries.
Photo by Volodymyr IlchenkoUkrinform
Currently, Ukrainian experts are determining the origin and value of 7 more artifacts based on photographs.
As noted in the ministry, this operation was the result of successful cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in the USA, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine and the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Return of cultural values from the USA to Ukraine
Such active cooperation of special services and cultural institutions began in June 2022. US Customs and Border Protection, along with other agencies under the US Department of Homeland Security, routinely intercept cultural property sent from Russia to the US through the mail.
Document approving the transfer of artifacts to Ukraine.
Photo by Volodymyr IlchenkoUkrinform
Thus, the Scythian akinaki of the VI century BC, the bronze sword of the XII–VIII centuries BC have already been returned to Ukraine. and other values. The last such transmission took place during the visit of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the USA in September 2023.
They are trying to take the artifacts out of the territory of Ukraine. In the summer of 2024, employees of Kyiv Customs discovered and seized a stuffed animal of a rare hawk and part of a saiga skull, which they tried to illegally export to the United States. Prior to that, a resident of Kyiv region tried to send six ancient coins of the Arab Caliphate from the 8th-10th centuries and eight payment ingots that were used on the territory of Ukraine during the 8th-12th centuries.
And in the winter of 2023, they tried to ferry the ancient icon “Our Lady of Tikhvinsk” from the famous Borisov icon-painting craft from Ukraine to the USA. Then the sender from the Ukrainian city of Pokrov declared the late 19th-early 20th century shrine as “accessories” worth 1,400 UAH.
