The British Museum (BM) is now planning the display of the Bayeux Tapestry, following long discussions over its loan from France. The Tapestry has until now been shown in Bayeux, in Normandy, in its dedicated museum, which closed last month. Its building, in a converted 17th-century seminary, is being renovated and expanded, with a new wing added to house the Tapestry.
In the meantime, the Tapestry will be lent to the BM from September 2026 to July 2027, returning to England for the first time in nearly a thousand years. It is owned by the French state, not a Bayeux institution, so the loan has been negotiated with the government.
Bayeux blockbuster
Demand for tickets in London will be huge. George Osborne, the museum’s chair, predicted that it would be in a league with the BM’s record-breaking exhibitions Treasures of Tutankhamun (1972, 1.7 million visitors) and The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army (2007, 850,000 visitors).
The Bayeux Tapestry Museum received 423,000 visitors (around 1,300 a day) in 2023, but when it is upgraded in 2027 it is planned to accommodate 2,800 a day. The BM is presumably expecting a similar daily number to the new purpose-built space in Bayeux. This suggests that the figure for the eight-month presentation in London might be close to the Terracotta Army’s total of 850,000.
In the Bayeux museum, which shut on 1 September, space constraints meant that the 70-metre embroidered strip had to be presented in a U-shaped configuration. This is not ideal for conservation, since the Tapestry had to be displayed vertically, putting undue strain on the fabric.
A straight run
A BM spokesperson points out that its Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery is “long enough to be able to accommodate the Tapestry being displayed in a single length”. The size of the BM gallery helps to explain why it secured the loan, rather than the other main contender, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
Conservators have now determined that it would be safest to display the Tapestry at a 60-degree angle from the horizontal. This angle will be used in the new Bayeux museum and presumably also at the BM.
Light levels need to be kept low, to radically minimise fading. In order to reduce the negative impact on visitors, the ambient lighting will be even lower, to allow eyes to adjust.
Walking talking tour
Next year the BM will have to face the challenge of dealing with the crowds. The Tapestry really needs to be viewed in sequence, since its 58 panels tell a story. The solution in Bayeux, and which is likely to be adopted in London, is to give visitors headphones and require them to move along as the audio tour progresses, resulting in an orderly, shuffling line.
Visitors at the new Bayeux museum will have 25 minutes to walk directly in front of the Tapestry, and although the time in the BM presentation has not been finalised, it is likely to be similar. With 58 scenes, that works out at just under 30 seconds for each. In London, there will also be a considerable number of explanatory panels for visitors to read before and after viewing the Tapestry, probably along with audio-visual presentations and related artefacts.
The conservation challenge
A BM spokesperson told The Art Newspaper that “we’re actively working on designs and with colleagues in France on practicalities, but we don’t have further details we can discuss”.
Before the agreement with the BM there was a long debate over whether the Tapestry is fit to travel. A recent detailed study recorded 24,204 stains, 16,445 wrinkles, 9,646 gaps in the cloth and 30 non-stabilised tears. Some conservation will therefore need to be done before the Tapestry is unveiled in London in September 2026.
I must confess, we did our best not to be in a situation to make this loan
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, was concerned about the Tapestry’s fragility, saying at the ceremonial announcement at the BM in July that he was initially hesitant to allow it to move: “I must confess, we did our best not to be in a situation to make this loan.” Controversy continues, with more than 70,000 people having signed (at the time of going to press) a petition calling for the cancellation of the loan. A BM spokesman commented: “We have a world-leading conservation and collections management team who are experienced at handling and caring for this type of material and they are working closely with colleagues in France on the Tapestry’s display.”
Complex negotiations
The idea of lending to the UK was first mooted in 2018, when it became clear that the Bayeux Tapestry Museum needed to be renovated and expanded. Subsequent discussions have been protracted, but the deal was finalised during Macron’s state visit to the UK in July 2025.
In return for the Tapestry, the BM has promised reciprocal loans to French museums of a number of masterpieces. These include a group (perhaps 20) of the Lewis Chessmen, found on the Scottish island and dating from around 1150-1200. Sutton Hoo treasures—Anglo-Saxon artefacts from a seventh-century ship burial in Suffolk—will also be lent, including the famed helmet. The Battersea Shield, a Celtic artefact which could be as old as 350BC, has also been promised, as have the Mold gold cape (around 1900–1600 BC) and the Dunaverney flesh-hook (around 950–750BC). Recipients are likely to include the Musée de Normandie in Caen and the Musée des Antiquités in Rouen.
The new €38m Bayeux Tapestry Museum, designed by the British architecture practice RSHP (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners), is due to reopen in October 2027, to mark the thousandth anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. It is likely to be a very long time before the Tapestry is lent for an exhibition elsewhere.
The late-11th-century narrative of the Norman Conquest has only twice been shown outside Bayeux, in Normandy, in the past millennium
Work and image: © Bayeux Museum
An embroidery, not a tapestry
Although traditionally called a “tapestry”, the narrative strip—70m long and 50cm high—is actually embroidered. Its origins remain uncertain, but it was almost certainly made in England, in around 1070. The Tapestry tells the story of events leading to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy, who challenged Harold II, the King of England. William proved successful at the Battle of Hastings.
It is believed that the Tapestry was sent to Normandy soon after its completion and it was later preserved in Bayeux Cathedral until 1794, when the fabric was almost cut up and used to cover army vehicles. From 1812 to 1842 it was in the town hall, where a caretaker would regularly unroll it for visitors. After that it went to Bayeux’s library. The present museum was opened in 1983. It has only twice in the past thousand years been shown outside the town, in Paris in 1803 and 1945.
