U.S. investigators say they have recovered three 19th century German paintings which were stolen when Allied forces swept through Germany near the end of World War II.
The paintings by artist Heinrich Burkel were among 50 works that belong to an art museum in the western German city of Pirmasens.
The museum moved the paintings to a school to protect them from Allied bombing.
A New Jersey man acquired the three paintings in the mid-1960s, and eventually left them to his daughter. The FBI says the woman put them up for sale through a local auction house, which advertised them on the Internet.
The director of the Pirmasens museum saw the advertisement and contacted German authorities.
The FBI says the woman has voluntarily relinquished the paintings. No one will be charged in the affair.
Some information for this report provided by AP.