'A true heritage crime': Nearly 50,000 sign petition against loan of Bayeux Tapestry to London

Published on 22/08/2025 - 11:49 GMT+2

For astir a 1000 years, nan Bayeux Tapestry hasn’t budged from France.

Now, a scheme to nonstop nan vulnerable embroidery crossed nan Channel to London's British Museum has ignited a large wind of protestation - pinch almost 50,000 group signing a petition that warns that 1 incorrect move could destruct 1 of Europe’s top treasures.

The campaign, launched successful July by French creation historiographer Didier Rykner, argues that transporting nan vulnerable embroidery to London’s British Museum is "a existent practice crime" and could origin irreparable harm to its linen fabric. Textile experts person echoed those fears.

“I deliberation nan tapestry must not beryllium transported, for respective reasons: its worth is incalculable and if thing happens to it nary magnitude of money and nary different akin entity tin switch it,” nan erstwhile head of nan Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Isabelle Attard, told The Art Newspaper.

She added: “It’s [also] highly vulnerable because of its age, past movements complete nan centuries, nan measurement it has been subjected to almost non-stop lighting since its return to Bayeux aft World War 2, and nan measurement it’s presently presented, sewn to a textile support hung from a obstruction connected small roller bearings, creating tensions everywhere.”

Rykner, editor of La Tribune de l’Art, is nary alien to high-profile taste battles. He antecedently rallied astir 300,000 signatures against Macron’s scheme to instal modern stained glass astatine Notre Dame Cathedral, though that effort yet failed.

The tapestry, which depicts nan events starring up to nan Norman conquest of England and nan Battle of Hastings successful 1066, and depicts 626 characters, 41 ships and 202 horses, is scheduled to spell connected show successful London betwixt September 2026 and July 2027 while its location successful Normandy undergoes renovations.

When French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed nan indebtedness during his 2025 authorities sojourn to nan UK – nan first by an EU leader since Brexit – nan symbolism wasn’t mislaid connected either broadside of nan Channel. After years of chilled relations, nan move was seen arsenic a motion of renewed taste warmth.

But nan tapestry’s travel is besides a literal homecoming. Historians wide judge it was primitively stitched successful England utilizing wool thread connected linen, meaning its impermanent return will reunite it pinch its spot of origin, says Bayeux Museum curator Antoine Verney.

The tapestry has survived invasions, revolutions and world wars. Napoleon displayed it successful Paris successful 1804, and nan Allies rolled it retired again successful 1944 aft liberating France. But moreover pinch that pedigree, its property is showing: “The textile fibres are 900 years old. So they person people degraded simply owed to age,” Verney said. “But astatine nan aforesaid time, this is simply a activity that has already travelled extensively and been handled a awesome deal.”

Details of really it will beryllium moved stay nether discussion. The transportation is being worked retired betwixt nan British and French governments, pinch conservation teams weighing each action – from humidity power and vibration monitoring to custom-built containers.