The Bayeux Tapestry is set for its big moment at the British Museum this fall, but the New York Times is dishing on how the loan came to be.
In a feature published Tuesday, reporter Alex Marshall reveals the many behind-the-scenes negotiations that brought the famed Romanesque-style textile artwork depicting the 1066 Norman invasion back home to the UK.
The most recent loan request was far from the first: the UK had previously asked for the work in 1953, 1966, and 1980. So what changed? As Marshall tells it, Chris Bryant, a senior UK official, went to the Cannes Film Festival last year to meet with Rachida Dati, France’s then–culture minister. (Dati, a controversial figure for her right-wing views, stepped down in February to run for mayor of Paris.) At Cannes, Dati arrived 25 minutes late to a 30-minute meeting, at which point she told Bryant that she had good news on the tapestry, but that he had to, in Marshall’s words, “get on his knees and propose.”
“I said, ‘I’ve already got a husband,’” Bryant told the Times. “So do I,” Dati replied, according to Bryant. “What’s wrong with polyamory?”
Bryant said he did get down on one knee. Several weeks later, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the loan agreement at the British Museum.
Bryant’s telling is hardly the triumphal story that the Brits would no doubt like to spin. But, hey, a win is a win.
The tapestry is set to go on view from September 2026 to July 2027, and tickets for the exhibition are already sold out through December. Additional tickets will go on sale in October and January. The British Museum has said it anticipates it will be one of the most visited exhibitions in the institution’s two-and-a-half-century history.
