On December 14, 2016, the Amsterdam District Court ruled (in Dutch) that various artifacts on loan from four museums in Crimea to the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam should be returned to Ukraine and not Russian-controlled Crimea. According to the press release, the Crimean museums loaned the artifacts in 2014, prior to Crimea separating from Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation, after which the Allard Pierson Museum was unsure where to return the artifacts. Although “the District Court does not deliver a judgement on who is the rightful owner of the artefacts,” which the Court stated must be determined by a Ukrainian court, the District Court did “determined that the Crimean Museums' claim that the treasures are part of the cultural heritage of Crimea or of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was incorrect, as neither is a (sovereign) state.” The parties now have three months to appeal the decision, during which time the artifacts will remain at the Allard Pierson Museum.