The Bayeux Tapestry will be on display at the British Museum starting in September. It arrived at the museum today from France. Photo courtesy of Antoine Cazin, La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie, via The British Museum
The Bayeux Tapestry, considered one of the world’s greatest artworks, arrived at the British Museum in London Friday after a very careful, clandestine trip from France.
The delicate tapestry is more than 220 feet long and shows 58 scenes surrounding William the Conqueror’s invasion of Britain in 1066. It’s believed to have been created around 1070 to 1092.
The tapestry was packed in a climate-controlled, vibration dampening crate that was surrounded by a steel cage. It traveled from Bayeux in northern France to London via trucks escorted by heavy police presence and a train under the English Channel.
“We’ve just witnessed something rather extraordinary, which is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum but specifically it is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years,” Nick Cullinan, director of the British Museum, told the BBC. “It feels like a really remarkable thing not just to witness but to be part of, and we’re so excited to share it with as many people as possible.”
French President Emmanuel Macron posted an image on X of a projection by the British Museum on the Cliffs of Dover that says, “Merci.” Macron said, “Thank you to the teams who made this historic gesture of trust, culture, and friendship possible. Long live the Entente Cordiale!”
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“This loan from France means much more than simply moving an artwork. It is a gesture of trust, a tangible expression of a longstanding friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together,” Macron wrote an opinion piece published in The Times Friday.
Some French art experts have objected, saying the tapestry was too fragile to travel. There was even a petition in France to stop the loan which garnered more than 78,000 signatures.
British Artist David Hockney, before his death in June, said he thought it shouldn’t come to London because of the danger to the piece. “Some things are too precious to take a risk with,” he wrote.
The tapestry will be on display from Sept. 10 through July 11, 2027. Tickets went on sale this month, and the museum announced it had sold $3.3 million in tickets on the first day. At one point, 80,000 people were in an online queue for tickets.
“It probably sounds a bit strange to be that excited at seeing a lorry reverse into a loading bay and a box removed, but when you consider the object within it, how old it was, how close to the events it depicts it was made, by people who lived through those events, it’s really profound,” Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, told the BBC. “I did well up a little bit when I saw it coming off the lorry so I imagine I’ll probably be in floods of tears when I actually see it.”
Historic July moments through the years
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo
