Extract from ABC News
The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed once again in the UK from September 2026. (Reuters: Charles Platiau)
In short:
The Bayeux Tapestry, the 11th-century artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years.
In return, the British Museum will loan artefacts from a seventh century Anglo Saxon ship burial — to museums in Normandy.
What's next?
It will be a blockbuster exhibition from September 2026 to July 2027.
The Bayeux Tapestry, the 11th-century artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in the UK for the first time in almost 1,000 years.
Officials said on Tuesday that the treasured medieval tapestry will be on loan from France and arrive next year at the British Museum.
The loan was announced during French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK.
The fragile 70-metre cloth depicts the events leading up to the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066.
The fragile 70-metre cloth depicts the events leading up to the conquest of England by William the Conqueror. (Reuters: The British Museum/Handout )
The artwork was 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.
No item 'so studied' as tapestry
British Museum Trustees chair George Osborne promised a "once-in-a-generation" exhibition that "eclipses all others".
"The Bayeux Tapestry will be THE blockbuster show of our generation," he said in a statement.
"I know it will capture the imagination of an entire nation.
There is no other single item in British history that is so familiar, so studied in schools, so copied in art as the Bayeux Tapestry.
"Yet in almost a thousand years it has never returned to these shores.
"Next year it will and many, many thousands of visitors, especially schoolchildren, will see it with their own eyes."
A section of the Bayeux Tapestry. (Reuters: The British Museum/Handout )
Sutton Hoo, Lewis Chessmen to head to France
In return, the British Museum will loan treasures from the Sutton Hoo collection — artefacts from a seventh century Anglo Saxon ship burial — to museums in Normandy.
The excavation of Sutton Hoo was dramatised 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.
It will be a blockbuster exhibition from September 2026 to July 2027.
AP/ ABC
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