Iconic Bayeux Tapestry to be loaned to Britain
France will loan the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum for 10 months from September 2026, the UK government and French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday during his state visit to Britain.
The loan of the embroidery depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England will be made in exchange for ancient "treasures" mainly from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo site, one of England's most important archaeological sites.
They will be loaned to museums in Caen and Rouen in northern France under the arrangement, two regional French newspapers Macron spoke to reported.
The Tapestry's loan will mark the first time in nearly 1,000 years that the 68-metre-long (224-foot-long) piece, which dates from around 1077, will have been on British soil.
The museum in the Normandy city of Bayeux that normally houses the tapestry is to close for two years for renovation from September 1.
"By its symbolic, unprecedented nature, and the priceless value of the loaned pieces, this unprecedented exchange signifies the desire to revitalise the cultural relationship between our two countries and the trust that exists between us today," Macron told Ouest France newspaper.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called it "one of the most iconic pieces of art ever produced in the UK" as she welcomed the exchange. While its origins have been the subject of speculation, some studies indicate the tapestry was probably designed and made in England.
"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 said.
"The British Museum is one of the world's most visited museums and is a fitting place to host this most treasured piece of our nation’s history."
Director of the British Museum Nicholas Cullinan said it was "hard to overstate the significance of this extraordinary opportunity of displaying it at the British Museum".
"We are profoundly grateful to everyone involved," he added. "This is exactly the kind of international partnership that I want us to champion and take part in."
- Cross-Channel exchange -
The UK culture ministry noted the British Museum will loan the Sutton Hoo collection, the Lewis Chessmen and "other treasures" to France
Macron said in his comments that would include the Battersea Shield, a metal cover believed to have once been attached to the front of a centuries-old wooden shield.
The British Museum holds 82 out of 93 ancient Lewis chess pieces found buried on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
Meanwhile the Sutton Hoo collection comprises relics discovered by archaeologists in 1938 at Sutton Hoo in the English region Suffolk, where they unearthed an Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
The finds were part of a seventh century Anglo-Saxon ship burial, and provide remarkable insights into England from a time before the Norman Conquest.
The search for more treasure there continues to this day.
The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the famed Battle of Hastings when William the Conqueror crossed from France to defeat English forces in southern England.
The story of the 1066 military defeat, in which England's King Harold famously died after taking a French arrow in the eye, is still taught to British school children and is a founding moment in the long and bloody history of Anglo-French rivalry.
The tapestry has been on display in various locations in France throughout its history, including most recently at the Bayeux Museum.
It has been recently restored for the first time since 1870, after Paris and London announced in 2018 that it would be loaned to Britain.
But the plan for the tapestry to cross the Channel for a mooted 2022 exhibition did not materialise, and there had been no recent update on when it would happen.
P.Johnston--TNT
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