{"id":369644,"date":"2026-01-14T16:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369644\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:36:09","slug":"moving-bayeux-tapestry-is-mad-gamble-hockney-tells-british-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/369644\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Bayeux Tapestry is \u2018mad gamble\u2019, Hockney tells British Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Hockney has accused the British Museum of vanity and recklessness over its pending display of the Bayeux Tapestry and said it put Europe\u2019s most important large artwork in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Hockney said moving the Tapestry to Britain this summer may have \u201cvanity and symbolic educational value\u201d but the physical and environmental risks were \u201csubstantial\u201d.<\/p>\n

The artist said it was \u201cmadness\u201d to consider \u201cgambling\u201d on the survival of the 1,000-year-old embroidery, which tells the story of the 1066 Norman conquest of England in 58 scenes, by transporting it to London.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings<\/p>\n

BAYEUX MUSEUM\/PA<\/p>\n

The museum has billed this summer\u2019s planned display of the work as a \u201conce-in-a-generation\u201d exhibition that \u201ceclipses all others\u201d. <\/p>\n

A \u201cdry run\u201d of a facsimile of the 70m artefact, which will be \u201cconcertinaed\u201d into a bespoke case, is due to establish whether the Tapestry can make the journey to London without vibrations breaching a 2mm-per-second mark that is believed would cause damage.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Taxpayer will cover damage up to \u00a3800m for Bayeux Tapestry loan<\/a><\/p>\n

Hockney said on Wednesday that there were \u201csignificant\u201d risks, given the weakened linen backing and vulnerability to stress of the wool embroidery threads. <\/p>\n

\u201cRolling, unrolling, or hanging it in a new way can cause, tearing, stitch loss and distortion of the fabric. Uneven tension is causing structural strain. Even minor mishandling could cause irreversible damage. It has survived so far like a miracle, being hidden away for 300 years until it was displayed permanently in the 1800s,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Hockney, 88, said each stage of the transport process introduced risks; \u201ceven minor mishandling\u201d was capable of causing irreversible damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven successful transport could shorten the tapestry\u2019s lifespan,\u201d Hockney wrote in The Independent, adding that, having survived for nearly a millennium, it now faced an \u201cunnecessary conservation ordeal with the British Museum\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTo what end? The vanity of a museum which wants to boast of the number of visitors. Is it really worth it? I think not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hockney advocated making an \u201cidentical copy\u201d and pointed out that the Bayeux Museum \u2014 which is undergoing renovation \u2014 was \u201cjust six hours away by car\u201d from London. \u201cWhy does a London museum, which prides itself on conserving and preserving great art, want to gamble on the survival of the most important art image of scale in Europe?\u201d Hockney wrote. \u201cIt is madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

Workers and volunteers prepare to pack the tapestry for transfer to the British Museum<\/p>\n

LOU BENOIST\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Hockney has become the biggest British voice to join French conservation experts who have warned about the risks of transporting the \u201cfragile and degraded\u201d object.<\/p>\n

The agreement between Britain and France over the loan outlines how the British Museum will have to \u201crely on the team trained by the French state and the city of Bayeux\u201d for the transport and installation of the artefact.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The best art exhibitions to book for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Opening hours for the British Museum are unlikely to be extended for the planned exhibition, given safety concerns about the Tapestry\u2019s exposure to light and even vibration from visitors.<\/p>\n

The museum has yet to release ticket prices or the name of the headline sponsor for the exhibition that its chairman, George Osborne, has compared to the 1972 Tutankhamun show, which drew more than 1.5 million visitors, and its 2007 showcasing of China\u2019s terracotta warriors from Xian.<\/p>\n

The British government will assume responsibility for any damage to the Tapestry during its transport from Normandy and display in London. It is valued at \u00a3800 million.<\/p>\n

Hockney said, however, that moving the \u201cpriceless\u201d artefact was too big a risk: \u201cI have been a risk-taker in most things I have done but I never see any advantage in being reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Hockney has accused the British Museum of vanity and recklessness over its pending display of the Bayeux…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-369644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}