At the end of World War II, John Pistone, now an 87-year-old veteran based in Ohio, was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler's home in the Bavarian Alps. While there, he found an album with photographs and swiped it as a souvenir.

It turns out that the 12-pound album, which sat on a bookshelf in Pistone's home for six decades, was the 13th of 31 albums full of images of artworks Hitler hoped to include in his planned Führermuseum in Linz, Austria.

In January, the U.S. State Department will formally return the book to the German government, which has possession of 19 of the 31 albums. The restitution was brought about when a friend of Pistone's got curious about the book, did some Internet research, and learned of the Dallas-based organization Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, which had helped recover two books documenting art Nazis stole from Jewish families.

Before returning to Germany, the album will go on display at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans for three months, along with one of the other two books the Monuments Men helped restitute.

Read more from the Associated Press.