The Bayeux Tapestry, a work of art depicting the Norman Conquest, is in Britain for the first time in nearly 1,000 years.
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The Bayeux Tapestry arrived in Britain for the first time almost 1,000 years before the exhibition for sale at the British Museum, traveling under police escort on a well-organized journey from France.
The 70-meter embroidery, depicting the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, was transported in an air-conditioned, anti-vibration crate under a French police escort through the Eurotunnel before crossing the Channel. It was then handed over to British authorities on the last leg of its journey to London.
Escorted by police, the truck slowly backed into the museum’s loading dock, where workers unloaded a container the size of a small car. Museum staff and the British and French ambassadors who were watching silently applauded.
The medieval artwork, believed to be made by English embroiderers, has generated nearly 4.7 million tickets, making it the museum’s best-selling exhibit.
“It was like trying to get tickets to Glastonbury,” British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan said as he waited outside the museum in the dark, referring to the UK’s famous, almost annual music festival.
“I don’t take it for granted that people care so much about 1,000-year-old embroidery. I think that’s amazing.”
Sewn with wool thread on linen fabric – technically embroidery, rather than tapestry – the artwork depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold’s Anglo-Saxon army. The invasion ended Saxon rule, made William the Conqueror the first Norman king of England and tied Britain and France ever closer together.
Historians believe the painting was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, and may have been stitched by English women – possibly nuns – before crossing the Channel. It spent most of the last millennium in the town of Bayeux in northwestern France, except for two brief periods at the Louvre in Paris.
The tapestry’s arrival in London was eagerly awaited, but due to security concerns all details of when and how it would arrive were kept under wraps.
“It feels amazing that after all this work and planning and care and I think it’s actually happening,” Cullinan said.
“It’s the first time in a thousand years that such an important piece of British history – French too – has been in these places,” he said. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
The tapestry will be tested for condition before being placed inside the custom-built exhibition before the exhibition opens on September 10.
France confirmed the loan last July when President Emmanuel Macron visited Britain as a guest of King Charles. The transfer of cultural wealth is seen as a sign of closer ties between the countries after the tensions caused by Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
“This … is an act of trust, a tangible expression of old friendship and a symbol of our desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together,” Macron wrote in the Times newspaper.
