On the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, by order of the so-called Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea dated December 11, 2014, the occupation institution State Budgetary Institution of the Republic of Crimea “East Crimean Historical and Cultural Preserve” was established instead of the liquidated Kerch Historical and Cultural Preserve.

In March 2021, the State Budgetary Institution of the Republic of Crimea “East Crimean Historical and Cultural Preserve” launched a series of exhibitions entitled “The Magic of the Bosporus” at museums in the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea. The first such exhibition was held at the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore (Yekaterinburg, Russia) from March to August 2021, followed by an exhibition in at Tula Museum of Fine Arts (Tula, Russia) in August–October 2022, and the third one at the Crimean Ethnographic Museum (Simferopol) in August–December 2023; the latter was seized by the occupation authorities. On May 31, 2024, an archaeological exhibition of the same set of objects titled “On the Edge of the Oecumene” was opened at the Azov Museum Preserve (Azov, Russia).

The press releases of all exhibitions contained the same names of the monuments from which the objects came (the Ych-Oba (“Three Brothers”) barrow group, the Lower Dzhardzhava (“Tsementna Slobidka-1”), the elite barrow of the Lower Dzhardzhava group (“Hospitalnyi”), the Alexander Rocks necropolis, the ancient Pantikapaeum, one of the ancient sanctuaries of the Eastern Crimea. The number of objects put on display was also approximately the same – 300 items. The available photographs from the exhibitions in Yekaterinburg, Tula and Simferopol did not allow us to attribute most of the objects from the exhibitions. 

The exhibition at the Azov Museum Preserve was covered in detail on the institution’s website, which enabled us to identify items from the illegal archaeological excavations of barrow 2 of the Lower Dzhardzhava barrow group (“Tsementna Slobidka-1”): a red-figure askos (a small vessel with a rounded or, conversely, low and almost flat closed body) depicting lions (figures 1, 2), a red-figure fish dish depicting fish (figures 3, 4), a red-figure pelike (an ancient Greek vessel, widening towards the bottom (figures 3, 5), a black lacquer lekif (figures 3, 6) and black-lacquer vessels (one-handed bowls, miniature bowls (figures 3, 7). The barrow was illegally excavated in August–September 2017 by the archaeological team of ITTs Special Works LLC. It is part of the large mound necropolis of Pantikapaeum of the 4th–3rd centuries BC on Cape Ak-Burun. From the Alexander Rocks-1 necropolis, also subjected to illegal excavations “for demolition” in 2017 (the permit holder is Sergey Vnukov), comes a twisted bracelet with tips (figures 8, 9), a fragment of a relief vessel (figures 8, 10) and numerous red-lacquer and red-clay vessels (figures 8, 11, 12). These items were seized from illegal excavations after 2014 and could not be included in the state part of the Museum Fund of Ukraine. 

Other objects from the collection of the Kerch Historical and Cultural Preserve (a relief with Demeter and Cora (figure 13), a votive relief (figs. 3, 14), a tombstone (figures 15, 16) were exhibited for a long time in the lapidary hall of the institution and were legally registered as part of the museum property of Ukraine. In addition to the lapidary collection, a unique set of objects from the main burial of the “oldest” barrow of the Ych-Oba barrow group (“Three Brothers”) was brought to this exhibition. The set included earrings in the form of sphinxes, a golden tiara, the remains of a decorated calathus, a slipware vessel, and twisted bracelets (figs. 18-22). 

The objects that were in the collection of the Kerch Museum-Reserve until 2014 were already included in the State Register of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation by the occupation administration. This was the last step in a series of appropriations: from the creation of occupation institutions to the seizure of each storage unit. As for the objects from the illegal excavations in Crimea in 2014, they do not appear in the Russian inventory system with reference to the institution, which increases the possibility of them “not returning” from such exhibitions.