Millions of dollars worth of ancient jewelry that was stolen from Ukraine has been found in Spain.
The 11 pieces of Greco-Scythian gold jewelry date from between the 8th and 4th centuries B.C., according to a translated statement by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
The ancient treasure is thought to be worth around €60 million, or about $64 million.
Five people have been arrested by Spanish police for the theft of the gold, as part of a joint-operation with the Ukrainian Security Service. Three of the individuals are Spanish, while the other two hail from Ukraine, one of whom is an Orthodox priest.
The gold jewelry came to the attention of investigators after a Ukrainian citizen in Madrid attempted to sell it, which, because of its cultural importance and age, could not be done via legal channels like auction houses. The jewelry was accompanied by documents in Ukrainian, English and Spanish saying that it belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Investigators seized one of the pieces of the treasure in 2021, a gold belt decorated with ram heads. Pictures of the other pieces provided by Spanish authorities show that they include intricate gold necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
The investigators found that the jewelry had been on display in a Kyiv museum between 2009 and 2013, after which it ended up in the possession of the Orthodox priest, one of the instigators of the plot, who falsified the ownership documents. The jewelry was then smuggled out of Ukraine before May 2016, and was being sold illegally in Madrid.
The other ten pieces of jewelry were recovered by investigators in recent months, and are now being studied at the National Archaeological Museum and at the Spanish Cultural Heritage Institute, both of which are in Madrid.
The Scythians were nomads who ranged across eastern Europe and Asia, and had remarkable metalworking skills, with the ability to produce elaborate jewelry, such as that recovered by Spanish police.
The term Greco-Scythian art covers the combination of traditional nomadic object types with a classical, naturalistic, style of decoration. Such metalwork comes from elite tombs in Ukraine's middle Dnieper and northern Black Sea regions.
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