British Museum will display Bayeux Tapestry in its first ever return to UK
- maxwell museums
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
The British Museum will display the Bayeux Tapestry in 2026, in an "extraordinary" loan that could be one of the museum's most popular exhibitions in its history.
The loan will be the first time the Bayeux Tapestry will have returned to Britain in nearly 1,000 years. It will be displayed from September 2026 until July 2027.
The news was announced as part of French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK. The historic loan agreement will be officially signed at the British Museum on Wednesday 9 July by Director of the British Museum Nicholas Cullinan. The signing ceremony will see an unprecedented full-day closure of the venue to the public.
In exchange for the tapestry's trip to England, treasures from the British Museum's collection that represent all four nations of the UK — including Sutton Hoo and the Lewis chess pieces — will travel to museums in Normandy, France.
"Blockbuster" Bayeux Tapestry loan hailed
The significance of the loan cannot be overestimated, and it will be seen as a turning of the page away from the British Museum's recent turmoil.
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The 70-metre Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings and is one of the most famous objects in the world. The embroidery in wool thread on linen cloth was created in the UK and dates back to the 11th century.
George Osborne, Chair of the British Museum Trustees, said it will be "THE blockbuster show of our generation" and compared it to the 1972 exhibition of Tutankhamun treasures which is by far the most popular show ever held at the museum, attracting 1.7m visitors.
“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." he said in a statement. "Yet in almost a thousand years it has never returned to these shores. Next year it will and many, many thousands of visitors, especially schoolchildren, will see it with their own eyes."
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she was "delighted that we will be able to welcome [the Tapestry] here in 2026. 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 Telegraph's Chief Art Critic Alastair Sooke (the paper first broke the news of the loan in a major scoop) said that to see something "so fundamental to our national story...coming home — possibly after more than nine centuries! — is a massive moment for this country."
The agreement follows years of diplomatic wrangling over the loan, and a number of failed attempts to secure its trip over the English Channel. In 2018 Theresa May, the prime minister, announced before a UK-France summit that the tapestry was to be put on display in Britain in 2022. It never materialised, mostly over concerns of the artwork's fragility.
Macron referenced the false start of that 2018 announcement in his speech to both houses of the UK Parliament on his state visit. He joked that "it took more years to deliver the project" to loan the Bayeaux Tapestry to the British Museum than "all the Brexit texts." The quip was met with laughter in the Royal Gallery, while the announcement inspired a cheer and applause from Britain's parliamentarians.
The Bayeux Museum, where the tapestry has been displayed since 1983, will close for a two-year renovation from 1 September 2025, which is the impetus for the loan.
Its arrival in London will form part of a bilateral season of culture across France and Britain in 2027 that will celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conquerer and the Grand Départ of the 2027 Tour de France in the UK.
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