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"We have lawyers drafting the relevant complaints. I am very hopeful that our counterparts in the Netherlands will approach the matter from the viewpoint not of petty politics but that of the law," Medinsky told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
Netherlands promised to resolve the issue of the Scythian gold collection that came from Crimea by the end of September, however, Russia still sought legal advice in the case that it does come to court, Medinsky said on Thursday.
"Crimean museums filed official requests to according to which the collection has to be returned and the Dutch have promised to consider them at the end of the summer or in September," minister said.
"At this stage the exposition has been extended due to excessive politicization of this issue," Medinsky added.
Originally, the Scythian gold exhibits were brought to Amsterdam from Crimea, but ever since the region's accession to the Russian Federation the gold became the centerpiece of a tug of war between Russia and Ukraine.
Medinsky noted that the collection "was handed over to Holland under a direct agreement between the Crimean museums and those of the Netherlands."
The Netherlands now faces the question of which country to return the disputed collection after the exhibit ends.
"From the legal point of view, it must go return to the Crimean museums. Ukraine wants to shift this issue into a political domain, and we to keep a legal one," Medinsky said.
The tricky part of this issue is that Netherlands has not officially recognized the accession.
Medinsky urged Dutch officials to consider at this issue "soberly, on the basis of the papers available."
Comment: The answer should be obvious: these artifacts belong in Crimean museums!