Nazis posing with art in Venice, Italy. Photo: Wikipedia.

The German government has determined that between 590 and 970 of the more than 1,400 artworks discovered in a Munich apartment last year were likely looted by the Nazis from Jewish collections,  Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

The German government pledged to research and publish the ownership history of the artworks, which were  seized from the son of an art collector tasked by the Nazis to sell them.

The government said late yesterday it would put the artworks it suspects were plundered on the website lostart.de, and began by posting 25, including works by Otto Dix and Eugene Delacroix.

Jewish groups and heirs’ representatives had earlier expressed outrage that no list of the artworks was being compiled.

“We have a great deal of understanding for the fact that representatives of Jewish organizations are asking lots of questions,” Steffen Seibert, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, told reporters at a news conference. “They represent some very elderly people, who experienced, or whose forefathers experienced, terrible injustices.”