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Back to its roots for the Bayeux Tapestry. Under tight security, this thousand-year-old wool embroidery on linen, depicting William the Conqueror’s rise to the English throne in 1066, left Normandy on Thursday 9 July. Its destination is London and the British Museum, where it will be on display from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027.
Since 19 September, it had been kept under strict secrecy just a stone’s throw from Bayeux Cathedral, inside the Museum of Art and History. From 6 pm on Thursday, several dozen people took turns to oversee its transfer to the other side of the Channel. The tapestry reached London early on Friday, at around 3 am, after travelling in a double container specially designed to minimise vibrations and maintain a constant temperature of 20 °C.
After a necessary acclimatisation period, the Bayeux Tapestry will be installed in the Sainsbury Exhibition Gallery at the British Museum, the French Ministry of Culture has said.
A sign of the value of this unique piece, the United Kingdom has pledged to pay £800 million (around €917.9 million) in the event of major damage. The country has also agreed to lend France items from the Sutton Hoo treasure – funerary furnishings belonging to a 7th-century Saxon leader – as well as Renaissance drawings. Including transport and exhibition, the cost of the operation is put at around €20 million, to be borne in full by the British.
Judging by the huge enthusiasm when the ticket office (source in French) opened, however, the investment looks set to pay off: all tickets on sale up to January 2027 were snapped up in a single day.
Tickets for visits between January and July 2027 will go on sale at a later date. According to the British press, the standard price is £33.
Macron: ‘Let us continue to build the future’
This unprecedented loan was announced in July 2025 by the French president to “revitalise the cultural relationship” with the United Kingdom, ten years after Brexit. “Let us continue to build the future of this bond between the two sides of the Channel, this Entente cordiale that has become an Entente amicale”, Emmanuel Macron wrote in an opinion piece published by the newspaper The Times (source in French) on Friday.
Stressing that the tapestry is an unfinished work, he argued that “it is up to us to write the next chapter, in a spirit of respect, trust and renewed alliance”.
A loan to London had been considered twice before, without coming to fruition: in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and in 1966, for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.
When it returns to France, some time in 2027, the tapestry is expected to go back on display at its museum in Bayeux, currently closed for renovation work, before undergoing a delicate restoration, long planned but repeatedly postponed. According to the authorities, this restoration should begin from 2028 and could be carried out inside the museum itself, in view of the public, so as to avoid another removal of the work.