Photoproduction of neutral pseudoscalar mesons π 0 , η(547) and η ′ (958) in the Coulomb field of an atomic nucleus is studied using a model which describes the Primakoff and nuclear parts of the production amplitude. At high energies the nuclear background is dominated by the exchange of C-parity odd Regge trajectories. In the coherent production the isospin filtering makes the ω(782) a dominant trajectory. The calculations are in agreement with π 0 data from JLAB provided the photon shadowing and final state interactions of mesons are taken into account. The kinematic conditions which allow to study the Primakoff effect in η and η ′ photoproduction off nuclei are further discussed. We also give predictions for the higher energies available at the JLAB upgrade.