Police find ex-MPs illegal collection of antique swords, armour, and other artifacts worth millions
Police found a large cache of antiquities during a search of a property belonging to the MP and other members of his criminal group. The items may have been illegally removed from the Museum Fund of Ukraine or may have been found during illicit excavations.
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The cache contains more than 1,000 artifacts dating from the Bronze Age and late Middle Ages, including:
a unique Hun sword with gold trim decorated with almandines, similar in style to the Hun tiara that Russian invasion forces stole from the Melitopol Museum;
armour from the 16th to 19th centuries, including that of Polish hussars, and Iranian helmets;
coins from antiquity to the late Middle Ages;
a Byzantine gold icon of the 11th to 12th century depicting the Archangel Michael;
ancient and Scythian antiquities;
icons;
edged weapons from the 14th to 19th centuries, WW1 and WW2;
Migration Period swords, etc.
The artifacts were now put in storage at the National Museum of History of Ukraine. Their cultural value and cost will be determined by experts. The collection is thought to be worth millions of dollars.
In addition to the cache, documents of illegal economic activities in the occupied Crimea and the occupied part of Donetsk region were discovered, the DBR said.
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Horbatov fled Kyiv to Russian-occupied territories before the full-scale invasion, according to police. He headed the Council of Ministers in Crimea in early 2000s, and twice served as a presidential representative on the peninsula.
The DBR served a notice of suspicion to Horbatov over financing the "DNR" terrorist organization and misappropriating historical artifacts stolen from Crimean museums and purchased from "black archaeologists."
More than 6,000 historical and cultural valuables, including Scythian swords, ancient coins, helmets and pottery of Trypillian culture, were found in one of his offices.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
