The Spanish police have confiscated antique Scythian jewelry worth 60 million euros, which had been illegally taken out of Ukraine for sale. This information is reported by BBC Ukraine.
In collaboration with the Security Service of Ukraine, the Spanish police arrested five individuals involved in the illegal scheme, three of whom were Spanish citizens, and two were Ukrainians. Law enforcement dismantled a criminal network involved in smuggling cultural valuables out of Ukraine.
According to the police, in 2016, 11 antique gold items, including bracelets, necklaces, and earrings dating from the 8th to the 4th century BCE, were illegally exported from Ukraine to Madrid for resale. Fake documents claiming ownership by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) were produced for these items.
When Spanish intelligence agencies learned about the sale of a series of valuable gold jewelry by a resident of Madrid, which had significant historical and economic value in Ukraine, they initiated an investigation. This investigation involved collaboration with the offices of attaches for internal affairs from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Albania, North Macedonia, and Cyprus, as well as the Department of International Cooperation.
To confirm the Ukrainian origin of the jewelry, documents in Ukrainian, English, and Spanish were attached to them, affirming their affiliation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They also found that the participants in the scheme allowed a Ukrainian Orthodox priest living in Madrid to manage the jewelry.
Ukrainian archaeologists report that Scythian gold on the territories occupied by Russia was stolen after the full-scale invasion by Russia began, and the damage from the looting of Ukraine's historical and artistic heritage by Russia is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of euros.
