{"id":766046,"date":"2026-09-10T10:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T10:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766046\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T10:26:14","slug":"bayeux-tapestry-exhibit-opens-doors-for-first-time-as-visitors-flock-to-the-british-museum-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766046\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayeux Tapestry exhibit opens doors for first time as visitors flock to the British Museum &#8211; follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Bayeux Tapestry less significant to France than Englandpublished at 08:48 BST<\/p>\n<p>08:48 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/088292f4-662f-422c-9a18-45c000bc6829.jpg.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Hugh Schofield<br \/>Paris correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A few months ago France was full of foreboding about the departure of the Bayeux Tapestry. The first time it was to leave French territory in nearly 1,000 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was too valuable, said the experts. It was too risky. Those English potholes were going to play havoc with the fibres. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Funny how these media frenzies die.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Today\u2026 not a squeak. The tapestry has arrived in London, is going on display, and the \u201ccontroversial\u201d loan has suddenly become consensual.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Even the \u201ctwo threads\u201d damaged in transit barely got a mention in the French press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The truth is that the tapestry features far less prominently in the national mindscape in France than in England.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Workers move a fake Bayeux tapestry box into a special conservation equipment, as part as a transport exercice, in Bayeux, northern France, on April 15, 2026.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ce5e1938-3ba2-494b-8a0b-2436f77d7754.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In April, workers moved a fake Bayeux Tapestry box from Bayeux, northern France, as part of a transport exercise<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In England, it is a record of perhaps the one date in history that people can still recite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Norman conquest, said Sellars and Yeatman in their hilarious 1066 and All That, was a \u201cgood thing\u201d because from that time on \u201cEngland stopped being conquered and thus was able to become top nation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But for the French it has always been a regional treasure, one among many that the country can boast. Normandy was its home, and to Normandy it will return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All of which suggests that Emmanuel Macron was right in his instinct to ignore the experts and just do it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Of course the lofty way he managed the affair, sniffily dismissing the art world\u2019s objections as so much special pleading, has not won him friends. But as a lame-duck president, that hardly matters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">What matters is that he\u2019s pulled off cultural and diplomatic coup de force. They said it would never happen, but it did.  And now no one in France appears to mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bayeux Tapestry less significant to France than Englandpublished at 08:48 BST 08:48 BST Hugh SchofieldParis correspondent A few&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-766046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766046","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=766046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}