The Bayeux Tapestry, an iconic embroidered fabric that depicts the Norman invasion of 1066, will come be loaned to British Museum subsequent 12 months, marking the primary time the tapestry has visited the UK in additional than 900 years.
The mortgage is the results of an settlement between British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, and can see the tapestry go on view on the British Museum in August 2026. In alternate, the British Museum will ship objects from the Sutton Hoo ship burial and the Twelfth-century Lewis chess items to establishments in Normandy, France.
There are few different objects in existence fairly just like the Bayeux Tapestry, which measures 230 ft lengthy. In accordance with the British Museum, it options 58 scenes, 626 characters, and 202 horses. Collectively, they inform story of the Normandy Conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings.
It’s prized as one of many nice works of the Romanesque type, crammed with small pictures that mix to inform a sprawling narrative. The best way the tapestry tells its narrative plotted the course for a lot of artworks that adopted, together with an array of historical past work made within the centuries afterward. It has additionally impressed an array of up to date artists, amongst them Britta Marakatt-Labba, whose 2003–07 tapestry Historjá tells the story of the Sámi individuals utilizing an identical format.
Already, the presentation of the Bayeux Tapestry within the British capital seems to be certainly one of 2026’s most anticipated reveals. And will probably be anticipated all of the extra as a result of officers have been attempting to make it occur for the higher a part of the final decade.
Macron first introduced plans to mortgage the tapestry in 2018, in a gesture that was explicitly supposed to represent continued connections between the UK and France post-Brexit. On the time, Macron stated the tapestry would head to the UK in 2022.
However in 2021, a report discovered that the tapestry was too fragile to journey, posing a major setback for the mortgage. Then, in 2022, it appeared as if the mortgage would possibly occur once more, with the Victoria & Albert Museum endeavor scholarship which may enable that London establishment to in the end exhibit the tapestry. But there have been no follow-up reviews to the Occasions of London one that exposed the V&A scholarship efforts.
Now, nonetheless, the mortgage seems to be formalized, in one other obvious signal that France and the UK want to affirm connections with one another. Macron posted a prolonged assertion concerning the worth of the UK on X right now, although he didn’t point out the tapestry in that publish particularly. “The UK is a strategic accomplice, an ally, a good friend,” Macron wrote. “Our bond is longstanding, cast by Historical past and strengthened by belief.”
British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan stated in an announcement, “That is precisely the form of worldwide partnership that I need us to champion and participate in: sharing the most effective of our assortment as extensively as doable—and in return displaying world treasures of the world by no means seen in London earlier than to a world viewers.”
The information marks one more thrilling growth for Bayeux Tapestry lovers. Earlier this 12 months, a fraction of the tapestry was present in a German archive. That fragment is slated to make its approach to France this 12 months.
