A missing fragment from the Bayeux Tapestry that was looted by Nazi archaeologists will be returned to France, after it was discovered in northern Germany.

The missing piece of the 11th-century tapestry was taken from the collection of Karl Schlabow, a textile archaeologist who worked in league with the Nazi SS as they scoured Europe for Germanic artefacts.

Schlabow and his colleagues looted the piece after Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader, sent them to study it in occupied France in 1941.

According to German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung, a member of the team removed part of the fragment and took it back to Germany, where it was hidden for decades.

But this month, it emerged that the elusive fragment had finally been discovered in the state archives of Schleswig-Holstein, where the Schlabow collection is held.

A press conference is due to be held in late March where further details about the fragment, which was taken from the underside of the tapestry, will be revealed.

The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066 and his ascension to the throne, is an integral part of France’s cultural heritage.

It is full of brutal depictions of combat, with the bodies of slain soldiers littering the bottom half of the tapestry.