The embroidered work of medieval art known as the Bayeux Tapestry, a masterpiece that depicts the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, will return to Britain for the first time in centuries, according to the British Museum, where it will be displayed in London starting next year.
The loan, which was announced on Tuesday as part of a state visit by President Emmanuel Macron of France, marks the first time that the tapestry will be in Britain since its creation, more than 900 years ago.
The arrangement will give visitors a glimpse of a crucial episode in their country’s history as they come to stand before an epic work made to hang in the nave of a cathedral in France.
The roughly 230-foot artwork, which was made in the years after the conquest, depicts the Norman invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings. The conflict allowed William the Conqueror to take the throne from Harold Godwinson to become the first Norman king of England.
The tapestry’s decorative borders display scenes of animals, as well as fables from Aesop and Phaedrus.
“The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most iconic pieces of art ever produced in the U.K. and I am delighted that we will be able to welcome it here,” Lisa Nandy, Britain’s culture secretary, said in a statement. “This loan is a symbol of our shared history with our friends in France, a relationship built over centuries and one that continues to endure.”
The British Museum said the tapestry would be on display from September 2026 to July 2027.
“The fact that this loan has actually been brokered is just a monumental kind of collaborative effort in terms of sharing this cross-cultural legacy,” Andrew Saluti, an associate professor of museum studies at Syracuse University, said in an interview.
The loan was first promised by Mr. Macron in 2018, but it took years to ensure that the tapestry could be safely moved from a museum in Bayeux, a town in northwestern France, some 160 miles northwest of Paris.
The tapestry is widely believed to have been made in England in the 11th century, according to the British Museum, and it was likely commissioned by William’s half brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux.
The tapestry was occasionally used to decorate the cathedral in Bayeux. It was threatened during the French Revolution in the 18th century — in one case, when revolutionaries sought to use it to cover ammunition wagons. Later, it was briefly exhibited by Napoleon in Paris in 1803, before it was moved back to Bayeux.
In exchange for the tapestry, the British Museum will loan artifacts to museums in Normandy, including the Lewis Chessmen, a collection of 12th- to early 13th-century chess pieces discovered on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, and the Sutton Hoo collection, which includes treasures from an Anglo-Saxon burial ship discovered in Suffolk, England, in 1939.
“The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most important and unique cultural artifacts in the world, which illustrates the deep ties between Britain and France and has fascinated people across geographies and generations,” Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the British Museum, said in a statement.
The arrival of the tapestry may also signal a new era for the British Museum, which has a history of resisting the return of cultural artifacts in its collection to their home countries.
One of the most famous examples involves the so-called Elgin Marbles — carved frieze panels that once decorated the Parthenon in Athens that were shipped to England in the early 1800s by the British aristocrat Lord Elgin. For centuries, there has been a dispute between Greece and Britain over whether the panels, which are displayed at the British Museum, were legally acquired. Recently, the museum’s chairman, George Osborne, said a deal with the Greek government to return the artifacts was “95 percent agreed.”
The exchange involving the Bayeux Tapestry, Saluti said, “is a sign that the tides could be shifting.” The British Museum, he added, may be willing to “facilitate these kinds of loans so that objects that really define a culture can be seen by their own people, and it’s a huge deal.”
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture.
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