The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed in the UK for the first time in nearly 1,000 years
The loan was announced during French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK. The fragile 70-meter (230-foot) cloth depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. The artwork is believed to have been commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux and has been displayed in various locations across France, including most recently at the Bayeux Museum in Normandy.
'The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most iconic pieces of art ever produced in the UK, and I am delighted that we will be able to welcome it here in 2026,' Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said in a statement. 'This loan is a symbol of our shared history with our friends in France, a relationship built over centuries and one that continues to endure,' she added.
In return, the British Museum will loan treasures from the Sutton Hoo collection–artifacts from a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial–to museums in Normandy. The excavation of Sutton Hoo was dramatized in the 2021 film 'The Dig,' starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan. Other items to be loaned to France include the Lewis Chessmen, the mysterious medieval chess pieces carved from walrus tusks and whales' teeth dating from around the 12th century that were discovered on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
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