It’s coming home: The tapestry is back in England
The Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman conquest of England means big money for the British Museum
• less than 3 min read
The Bayeux Tapestry—no, it’s not a Joe Burrow football jersey from his LSU days—was returned to England from France and put on display at the British Museum in London for the first time yesterday, after spending nearly 1,000 years in Normandy.
The 230-foot-long embroidered cloth depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It has 58 scenes from the skirmish, and is just slightly more valuable than something similar on Etsy:
- While considered priceless, the loan is covered by a $1.1 billion insurance policy.
- It’s the most expensive exhibition in British Museum history, with transportation costs alone running $1.6 million.
The tapestry will be on display until July, but good luck getting in—it’s sold out through the end of the year. Tickets are £33 ($45) for adults and £25 ($34) for students. The museum sold 80,000 tickets in the first tranche this summer and is hoping the tapestry will attract 1 million visitors.
Critics decry damage: Maybe there was a reason to not move the centuries-old cloth. One of the tapestry’s conservators told the New York Times that her team discovered two small breaks among the threads. A French expert said that while the damage was minor, it was an “unacceptable” risk to move it to Britain at all.—DL
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