KIEV, May 12 – Ukraine has recovered 17 paintings, including works by Peter Paul Rubens, Jacopo Tintoretto, Antonio Pisanello, Giovanni Caroto, Andrea Mantegna, which were stolen by armed robbers from the Castelvecchio museum in Verona last November, State Border Guard Chief Viktor Nazarenko said on Wednesday in a report to President Petro Poroshenko.

The Ukrainian authorities will now invite Italian experts to authenticate the paintings – which have an estimated value of more than EUR16 million ($18.3 million) and prepare for them to be handed back, his office said in a statement.