The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) found another collection of ancient Ukrainian artifacts in property of the former MP of Ukraine Valerii Horbatov, who ran a business in the annexed Crimea.
Itʼs about a unique Hun sword with gold decoration, a golden Byzantine icon of the XI-XII centuries, jewelry, helmets, icons, and other items that have historical and cultural value.
The seized sword of the Huns is decorated with gold and almandines. In terms of style, it resembles the famous Hun diadem from the Melitopol Museum, which was stolen by the Russian invaders. Armor from the 16th to the 19th centuries was also found, including helmets of Polish hussars, Morion type, Iranian helmets, coins from antiquity to the late Middle Ages.
The law enforcement officers also found a Byzantine golden enamel-decorated icon with the image of Archangel Michael from the 11th-12th centuries, ancient and Scythian antiquities, icons, cold weapons from the 14th-19th centuries, the First and Second World Wars, swords from the era of the Great Migration, etc.
Valuable finds were transferred to the National Museum of the History of Ukraine for safekeeping. In the future, they plan to appoint a forensic art and evaluation examination to establish the cultural value of the objects, their value.
Both collections, according to preliminary data, are worth millions of dollars.
According to operational data, the former deputy fled from Kyiv to the occupied territories on the eve of full-scale Russian aggression.
- In April 2022, SBI employees exposed the financing of the terrorist organization "DPR" to former MP Valerii Horbatov. After the occupation of Crimea, he continued to do business there and pay taxes to the occupiers.
- The former official also appropriated the cultural heritage of Ukraine, according to preliminary information, stolen from the museums of the Republic of Crimea and bought from "black archaeologists".
- At that time, SBI employees conducted six simultaneous searches — in one of the office premises of Kyiv, they discovered more than 6,000 items of historical and cultural values.
- During new searches, at the beginning of May, another hiding place with a large collection of antiquities, which may also have been illegally removed from the Museum Fund of Ukraine or found during illegal excavations, was found in the hands of the deputy and members of his criminal group. In total, more than a thousand artifacts were found, which belong to the eras from the Bronze Age to the late Middle Ages.