ROME, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- During World War II, a German soldier moving north through the central Italian city of Florence headed home with an unusual souvenir in his rucksack. Now, 75 years later, Florence wants it back.

An early 18th century still life by Dutch painter Jan van Huysum has become the unlikely centerpiece of a standoff between officials in Florence -- where the work was displayed between 1824 and 1944 -- and the descendants of the German soldier who took it from the walls of Florence's Palazzo Pitti.

"It is very simple: the painting belongs to the Uffizi and it should be on display for museum goers," Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, told Xinhua. Palazzo Pitti, a Renaissance palace, is now a museum under the auspices of the Uffizi.

Schmidt made the headlines this month when he placed a framed black-and-white photo of the painting, entitled "Vase of Flowers", on a museum wall above an inscription in three languages reading: "Stolen! The work was stolen by soldiers of the Nazi Army in 1944 and is now in a German private collection."

The Uffizi, one of the world's most important art museums, does not have another painting by van Huysum in its collection, though it has a room dedicated to works by the painter's peers. That is where Schmidt hung the facsimile.

Schmidt, a German art historian who took over the directorship of the Uffizi in 2015, said the museum had been in back-channel negotiations with the German government and the family that has the painting starting in the early 1990s, when the still life resurfaced in the former East Germany.

"We have not released the name of the family that has the painting specifically because we don't want to embarrass them," Schmidt said. "But we are hoping that by making the case more public we may make more progress. It will also make it more difficult for anyone to sell the piece on any secondary market."

According to media reports, the family has demanded compensation for the painting, something the Uffizi rejected outright. For its part, the German government has refused to intervene because the 30-year statute of limitations for this kind of crime has expired.

Giuseppe Calabi, a senior partner with the Studio CBM & Partners law firm and a specialist in issues related to art, told Xinhua that Italian law is clear in that the state cannot ever lose its ownership rights for works of art or other types of cultural patrimony.

"From a legal perspective Italy only has to prove the painting was owned by the state," Calabi said. "Of course, a judge would have to take German law into account. And I am sure the goal is to negotiate an agreement and avoid taking the case to court."

Lorenzo Fabbrini, a veteran Rome-based art dealer, estimated that if auctioned, "Vase of Flowers" would fetch around 200,000 euros (225,000 U.S. dollars). But in an interview, Fabbrini said issues of ownership are more complex than simply measuring the value of a work of art.

"Some people would say that a masterwork is the property of a specific museum or a specific country, and that is easy to understand," Fabbrini said. "Others would say it is the property of all mankind. To disagree with that would mean Italian museums would have almost only Italian art, only French art in French museums, and so on."

In Italy, the topic has quickly become an issue of national pride.

"Some people say everything is fair in war but this case is unusual because the painting was taken from a public space and kept in a private collection," Roberto Manescalchi, an art historian and author, told Xinhua. "The museum is well within its rights to ask for the painting to be returned." Enditem

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