Mary Beard has intervened in the row about excessively long queues for the Bayeux tapestry by visiting the line and submitting a list of improvements to the British Museum.

Beard, 71, is a trustee of the museum and inspected the queue herself after visitors to the tapestry complained that they had to wait for hours for their turn to view it, and some were turned away with no guarantee they would get another time slot.

One visitor posted on social media that she had been waiting since she was seven to see the Bayeux tapestry, and had bought tickets only to be turned away after queueing.

Mary Beard, seen here at the announcement of the Booker prize shortlist last month, said she had some sympathies for the museum. Photograph: David Parry/Shutterstock

The museum has since announced new measures to make the viewing of the tapestry, which has returned to England after 1,000 years in France, more accessible. This includes longer opening hours to prevent queues, a new audio guide to help people move along the embroidery, and additional signage and seating.

Beard, a celebrated classicist and TV presenter, told the Guardian she had visited to “chat to people in the queue”, adding: “The atmosphere was very good, with people who had come from everywhere. I thought some tweaks were necessary: more benches for old ladies like me, more guidance on wait times.”

She said she had some sympathies for the museum: “We had to expect some teething troubles – this isn’t like an ordinary exhibition, everyone has come to see the same one object! The important thing is to put those teething troubles right.”

Members of the public keen to see the Bayeux tapestry faced online queues of up to nine hours when tickets went on sale for the first time this summer. There were reports of 40,000 people queueing by mid-morning, with that figure ballooning to almost 80,000 by mid-afternoon. The next wave of public tickets for the tapestry will go on sale on 21 October at 10am.

Adult tickets cost £33 during peak times and £27 at off-peak hours, compared with its usual €12 (£10) fee to see the tapestry in its home in Bayeux, Normandy.

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The British Museum’s handling of the exhibition has come under scrutiny after the Guardian revealed that the controversial tech billionaire Peter Thiel was given a private viewing of the tapestry. The Trump-supporting businessman’s public software company, Palantir, plays a controversial role in the British state.

Of the viewing, the museum’s chair, George Osborne, said: “It wasn’t like we expected anyone to know about it.” The museum’s director of development, Charlotte Appleyard, hosted Thiel at a VIP viewing of the tapestry before it opened to the public on 18 August.

When asked what the museum might have received in return, Osborne said: “The short answer is [Thiel] hasn’t offered any money, and were he to offer money, the board would consider it and have to take into account the pros, you know, receiving more income, and the reputational risks.”

A British Museum spokesperson said they were “delighted by the excitement” people had shown. They added: “We also know that some visitors have faced longer queues than we would have wanted, so we are introducing a series of measures to make the experience smoother and give more people the time they need to enjoy the tapestry.”