President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has taken part in the ceremony of passing paintings that were abducted and detained at the Ukrainian border to Italian Verona.

"Through effective cooperation of prosecutors, border guards and other Ukrainian law enforcers it was possible to block the smuggling channel of the values of art, not only delay the smugglers, but also find these priceless works of art that we are now finally returning to our Italian friends after all the formal procedures," the president said, speaking at the ceremony.

According to him, from now on 17 paintings will be passed over to the Castelvecchio museum in Verona, from where they were abducted in 2015.

"I would like to thank the Italian government, the mayor of Verona, the Embassy of Italy for the opportunity to exhibit these 17 priceless paintings at the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Art," Poroshenko said, adding that tens of thousands of Ukrainians have visited the museum and saw these pictures.

In turn, Verona Mayor Flavio Tosi thanked the Ukrainian side for such assistance in finding and returning valuable paintings. "It happened that the story had rather unpleasant and dramatic beginning and such a good ending, because it will serve as a starting point for strengthening our further cooperation especially in the field of culture, as well as for the strengthening of bilateral relations," he said.

As reported, a total of 17 valuable paintings were detained near the border with Moldova in Odesa region on May 6, 2016 which were stolen by armed robbers from the Castelvecchio museum in Verona in 2015. Art expert analysis of paintings by such artists as Peter Paul Rubens, Jacopo Tintoretto, Antonio Pisanello, Giovanni Caroto, Andrea Mantegna was held on May 7. It was established that the paintings are originals. Estimated value of the paintings is from EUR15 to EUR 20 million.

In June 2016 the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv opened an exhibition "Rescued Treasures of Italy. 17 Paintings from Castelvecchio Museum in Verona." Everyone could see these pieces of art.