"There is no way 18,500 artefacts are in Serbia," Omcikus said in an interview in the Wednesday edition of the Novi Sad-based newspaper "Gradjanski list".
Omcikus, who served as secretary of the crisis coordination committee of the Ministry of Culture during the war in Croatia, added that all the works of art that had been officially taken from Croatia had been returned and that the number of artefacts claimed was not realistic.
He said that there were about 1,500 ecclesiastical items from Croatia in Serbia and that their restitution would depend not only on Croatia, but also on the Serbian Orthodox Church and the return of Serb refugees to Croatia.
Earlier this week, Croatian Culture Minister Bozo Biskupic urged Serbia and Montenegro to appoint the chief negotiator for talks with Croatia on the return of statues from the Ernestinovo area and other listed works of art that had been taken to Serbia and Montenegro.
Croatian Assistant Culture Minister Branka Sulc specified that 8,500 museum exhibits and about 10,000 ecclesiastical artefacts were still in Serbia and Montenegro.
Omcikus said that should the allegations by the Croatian minister prove true, the artefacts would be given back as had been the case with a Vukovar art collection.