BERLIN (AP) — A leading German archaeological institute says it has recovered an ancient Egyptian artifact missing since World War II.

The fragment of a stone slab made in Upper Egypt around 1250 B.C. was discovered in the collection of the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said Tuesday the glazed stele features an image of Ptahmose, the mayor of Memphis, raising his hands in worship of the deities Osiris and Isis.

The artifact previously was thought to have been destroyed during the war.

The foundation says research showed a Dutch-American scientist, Samuel Abraham Goudsmit, purchased the stele in 1945 from a private collector and bequeathed it to the Michigan museum.

Goudsmit was part of a secret U.S. army mission investigating Nazi Germany's efforts to build a nuclear bomb.