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Bayeux Tapestry to return to UK on loan after 900 years

Katie Razzall
Culture and Media Editor•@katierazz
Bayeux Museum A scene showing men in horses from the 70-metre Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, and is due to go on display in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery at the British Museum Bayeux Museum
It will be the first time that the tapestry has been shown in the UK since it was made, almost 1000 years ago

The Bayeux Tapestry is returning to the UK more than 900 years after its creation, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed.

The 70m-long masterpiece, which tells the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, will be loaned in a historic agreement to be signed between the French and British governments.

The huge embroidery - which is widely believed to have been created in Kent - will go on display at the British Museum in London next year.

In exchange, treasures including artefacts from the Anglo-Saxon burial mounds at Sutton Hoo and the 12th Century Lewis chess pieces will travel to museums in Normandy.

The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed from next Autumn until July 2027, while its current home, the Bayeux Museum, is being renovated. 2027 is also the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror.

George Osborne, the British Museum's chair of trustees, told the BBC the exhibition "will be the blockbuster show of our generation" - like Tutankhamun and the Terracotta Warriors in the past.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are expected to make the official announcement of the deal on Tuesday evening at Windsor Castle.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the loan "a symbol of our shared history with our friends in France, a relationship built over centuries and one that continues to endure".

The Trustees of the British Museum picture show an ornate iron helmet, dating to the early AD 600s, this outstanding burial clearly commemorated a leading figure of East Anglia, the local Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It may even have belonged to a king. The Trustees of the British Museum
An ornate iron helmet is among the Sutton Hoo artefacts that will be loaned by the British Museum to museums in Normandy
The Trustees of the British Museum Images shows Lewis chess pieces, made of ivory from the 12th Century - on red & beige boardThe Trustees of the British Museum
The agreement will see the British Museum lend Lewis chess pieces to museums in Normandy

A loan was first suggested in 2018 between President Macron and then-Prime Minister Theresa May. It's taken until 2025 for it to become a reality.

The Bayeux Tapestry, which dates back to the 11th Century, charts a more contested time in Anglo-French relations, as Anglo Saxon dominance was replaced by Norman rule.

Bayeux Museum Photo shows A long section of the Bayeux Tapestry which is shown in a darkened space in which only the artefact itself is lit.Bayeux Museum
The 70m-long Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings

Although the final part of the embroidery is missing, it ends with the Anglo Saxons fleeing at the end of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Its 58 scenes, 626 characters and 202 horses give an account of the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other, offering up not just information about military traditions but also the precious details of everyday life.

The work has inspired many through the centuries, including artist David Hockney whose Frieze depicting the cycle of the seasons in Normandy was influenced by the Bayeux Tapestry.

David Hockney/Getty Images David Hockney in checked suit and hat posing in front of his painting "A year in Normandy", a colourful work showing landscape of Normandy in seasonsDavid Hockney/Getty Images
A Year in Normandy by David Hockney, pictured in 2021, was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry

The British Museum's director, Nicholas Cullinan, said: "This is exactly the kind of international partnership that I want us to champion and take part in: sharing the best of our collection as widely as possible - and in return displaying global treasures never seen here before."

Eagle-eyed watchers of the British Museum may view this latest announcement as offering a template for the ongoing discussions with the Greek government about the future of the Parthenon Sculptures.

The Parthenon Project, a group which lobbies for the return of the classical marble sculptures to Greece, have suggested what they term a "win-win" solution, with never before seen items from Greece brought to the British Museum in exchange for the Parthenon works.

Jeff Overs/BBC Picture shows section of contested Parthenon Sculptures, which were removed from Ottoman Greece to Britain by the seventh Earl of Elgin, and are now in the British MuseumJeff Overs/BBC
The contested Parthenon Sculptures are currently on display in the British Museum

Today's focus is closer to home and an exhibition that the British Museum expects will be one of its most popular ever, a once-in-a-generation show.

Every British schoolchild learns about King Harold, William the Conqueror and 1066.

As Osborne put it: "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 1,000 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."