KIEV— The Ukraine government has said it is unlikely to return more than a dozen paintings that have been its possession since they were taken from a German museum as Soviet war trophies during World War II, reports the Associated Press.

The German Foreign Ministry said this week that it wants to negotiate the return of the works, which German tourists spotted in a museum in Simferopol. The works are believed to be from the collection of the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum in Aachen.

Thought to be included are Hans Herrmann's October Morning in Amsterdam, Johann Gottfried Pulian's Aachen Cathedral, August von Brandis's Autumn Sun, Gregor von Bochmann's Farmhouse in Estonia, Carl Georg Adolph Hasenpflug's Roman Cloister, Christian Friedrich Mali's Shepherd Resting, and Pedro Orrente's John the Baptist.

Larina Kudryashova, director of the Simferopol Art Museum, said that the museum has 87 works from Western Europe, but not all of them belonged to the Aachen museum, and none of them will be returned. Ukrainian law prohibits their restitution, she said, adding that Germany has exhibited works seized from Ukraine during the war, but "nobody is returning them to us."

"We would, of course, be pleased if the paintings were to be returned," said Heinrich Becker of the Aachen museum, "but the most important thing is knowing that they haven't been destroyed."