• First winners Uruguay and Italy inscribed on trophy • Cup was given new base before 1954 tournament

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The stone base of the original World Cup trophy has been found and will be displayed in the new Fifa museum.

A staff member found the base of the Jules Rimet trophy last month in basement storage at Fifa headquarters, according to the museum’s creative director, David Ausseil.

“It’s like finding an Egyptian mummy,” Ausseil said. “You can’t put a price tag on it because it’s family jewels.”

The base is a 10cm (4in) tall, octagonal piece of blue semi-precious lapis lazuli stone, Ausseil said.

It carries the names of the first World Cup winners: Uruguay and Italy each won twice between 1930 and 1950.

Ausseil said the trophy got a new base before the 1954 tournament, won by West Germany.

The gold statuette was permanently given to Brazil after they won their third title in 1970. It was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.

“We thought [the base] was lost in Brazil,” Ausseil said. “We think no Fifa president has seen it since Jules Rimet himself.”

The World Football Museum is scheduled to open in March 2016 in Zurich.