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\n\tEscorted in secret by police under the cover of darkness, the millennium-old Bayeux Tapestry finally arrived to London\u2019s British Museum on Friday. The long-awaited but controversial loan from France was welcomed at 2:48 am by a \u201cselect crowd,\u201d including France\u2019s ambassador to the UK, per British reports. A large black box within a gridded, aluminum casing designed to keep the relic suspended to avoid damaging vibrations was removed from a yellow truck, as some teary-eyed witnesses looked on. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI did well up a little bit when I saw it coming off the lorry,\u201d said Millie Horton-Insch, curator of the museum\u2019s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe French loan to the UK of the 70-m-long embroidery is thought to be the first time in 1,000 years that the European masterpiece has returned to England. Experts believe it was made by nuns in Canterbury to depict events leading to the Battle of Hastings and the pivotal 1066 Norman Conquest of England. The tapestry\u2019s transfer has also been wielded as a political tool to strengthen French-British diplomatic relations, as Europe tries to unify against common foes and lessen dependence on an American ally proven fickle by the current administration.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Bayeux tapestry loan from France \u201cmeans much more than simply moving an artwork,\u201d wrote French President Emmanuel Macron in a statement published in today\u2019s Times of London<\/em>. \u201cFaced with the major challenges of our time \u2014 the security of our continent, technological sovereignty, innovation, energy and decarbonization, and the resilience of our democracies \u2014 we have chosen to act together,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \n\tThe physical transfer of the embroidery took months of careful planning, as experts weighed in on how and whether it was too risky to move the highly fragile artwork, which already suffers from multiple tears and holes. Even the late artist David Hockney weighed in, calling the endeavor \u201cmadness.\u201d But, in the end, following a failed legal challenge to the project by a French heritage group, the road was cleared for the tapestry\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor the past year, curators, restorers, engineers and teams from France, the UK and other European nations have\u00a0worked with remarkable dedication and ingenuity. Together they drew up the protocols enabling the\u00a0artwork to travel and be exhibited under the best possible conditions in terms of security and conservation,\u201d added Macron. He went on to describe the transfer as \u201ca gesture of trust, a tangible expression of a long-standing friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together.\u201d Earlier, he also posted a photo on social media of the British Museum\u2019s projected slideshow on the famous white cliffs of Dover, featuring the Bayeux Tapestry and the words \u201cmerci.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEchoing those sentiments, British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan said in a Le Monde<\/em> op-ed that, \u201cto entrust another country with one of your most cherished cultural treasures is an act that reaches beyond diplomacy. It is a gesture of confidence, of friendship and, above all, of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor the next few days, the artwork will remain in its traveling case so that it can acclimate to the new environment, according to Cullinan, speaking to the Times.<\/em> Next, around 100 museum employees, selected for their similar heights, will place the tapestry into its new display case, which will present the work horizontally, at its full length. There, lucky visitors will be able to view it starting in September. Tickets for this year have sold out, but spots are still available for 2027.<\/p>\n \n\tThe tapestry was long exhibited in Normandy\u2019s Bayeux Museum in a horseshoe display. In return for the loan, the British Museum is loaning to France the seventh-century Sutton Hoo funerary treasures, the 12th-century Lewis Chessmen carved chess pieces, and other items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/bayeux-tapestry-historic-arrival-londons-british-museum-1234791833\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1167776220.jpg?w=1024″] Escorted in secret by police under the cover of darkness, the millennium-old Bayeux Tapestry finally arrived to London\u2019s British Museum on Friday. The long-awaited but controversial loan from France was welcomed at 2:48 am by a \u201cselect crowd,\u201d including France\u2019s ambassador to the UK, per British reports. A large black box within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2037324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}