The Bayeux Tapestry, a monumental medieval embroidery work chronicling William the Conqueror’s invasion of England, will return to the United Kingdom for the first time in approximately 950 years. The tapestry, which is currently housed in a museum in Bayeux, France, will be displayed at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027.
The agreement was announced during a state visit to the United Kingdom by French president Emmanuel Macron. In return, the British Museum has agreed to lend artifacts from the Sutton Hoo ship burial and a set of 12th-century Lewis chess pieces to museums in Normandy. This deal is the result of a decades-long effort to persuade a hesitant French government to part with the tapestry. The loan was formalized at a ceremony on July 9th.
“[For] decades, I have to confess, we did our best not to be put in this situation to make the loan of the Bayeux tapestry,” Macron said during the ceremony, as reported by The Art Newspaper. “We found the best experts [in] the world to explain in perfect detail why it was totally impossible to make such a loan. And believe me, we found them, and believe me, we could have found them again. But we just decided a few years ago [to approve the Tapestry loan], and I have to pay tribute to your King [Charles III] because it was a discussion together and I saw his attachment, his willingness, towards this project.”
The Bayeux Tapestry is thought to have been produced in England during the 11th century. The 230-foot-long artwork depicts the Norman invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It features 626 people, 762 animals, and a total of 58 inscriptions. The Battle of Hastings concluded with the dethronement of Harold Godwinson by William, who became the first Norman king of England.
The tapestry was likely commissioned by William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux. It was regularly presented in the Bayeux Cathedral throughout the 18th century, and once briefly exhibited by Napoleon in Paris in 1803. It has remained in France ever since.
“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 a thousand years, it has never returned to these shores,” George Osborne, chair of the British Museum trustees, said in a statement. “Next year, it will, and many, many thousands of visitors, especially schoolchildren, will see it with their own eyes.”
Macron announced plans to loan the Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom in 2018 as a sign of goodwill following the Brexit referendum. At the time, the tapestry was expected to be loaned in 2022. However, the exchange was postponed when a 2021 study declared the tapestry too fragile to leave the country. It placed the loan on hold until this week. Though delayed, the gesture is intended as another signal of cultural connection between the two countries.
“There is no trade war or tariff against this type of [culture-based] approach…there are no borders by definition,” Macron said.
