Macron lends Bayeux tapestry to UK: work could leave France for first time in 950 years

The news is sure to come as a blow to those who think that works of art should move only in limited cases, and if there are more than justifiable scientific reasons for the move: the French prime minister, Emmanuel Macron, has in fact confirmed his intention to lend the United Kingdom the celebrated Bayeux tapestry, a priceless work dating from the mid-11th century in which, in the space of seventy meters of fabric, a number of events relating to the Norman invasion and conquest of England are depicted (including the decisive Battle of Hastings, which saw the final victory of the Normans over the Anglo-Saxons). The work has been in France since at least 1476, when it was first mentioned in a catalog of the assets of the cathedral of Bayeux, the Normandy town on the English Channel coast, where it is still kept today (at the local Bayeux Tapestry Museum set up on the premises of the Centre Guillaume-le-Conquérant). We do not know who commissioned it or where it was originally located: according to one hypothesis, the commissioner may have been Odo de Bayeux, who together with his brother William the Conqueror was among the architects of the Norman conquest of England.

The loan is scheduled, in all likelihood, for 2022, when the Tapestry Museum will be closed for construction: the British Museum could be the host for the work. It is, in any case, a move with a strong political flavor: the formality will come as part of an Anglo-French summit scheduled for today, Thursday, Jan. 18, during which Macron and his British counterpart, Theresa May, will discuss issues such as Brexit, the migration crisis and cooperation against international terrorism. A “diplomatic loan,” I called it Le Monde, that will go a long way toward strengthening relations between France and Britain. In any case, a committee of experts will assess whether the tapestry can move: it is indeed an extremely delicate work, and the last two attempts to move it to the other side of the Channel (in 1953 for the coronation of Elizabeth II and in 1966 for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings) had negative outcomes.

Before Macron, the last person to move the tapestry for political purposes was Napoleon, who in 1803 moved it from Bayeux to Paris for display at the Musée Napoleon. He has since moved it on other occasions, but for mere conservation purposes: this was the case during the Franco-Prussian War and World War II, when the tapestry was moved to secure locations to save it from possible devastation caused by conflict.

Macron lends Bayeux tapestry to UK: work could leave France for first time in 950 years

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