Is it a debate that shakes the community of art experts? The debate was granted to the Agenda by Emmanuel Macron during his visit to the United Kingdom, while the Head of State announced the almost millenal work loan at the British Museum in London in 2026.
For many experts interviewed by BFMTV, the idea is not so good. Emmanuel Macron has taken this idea for years and wants to go to the end. It was during the Franco-British Sandhurst Summit in January 2018 that the President of the Republic issued this desire for the first time. At that time, the conservatives of the Bayeux Museum had climbed into the niche.
International experts had even warned: in case of a loan and, therefore, travel, the bayeux tapestry must consolidate imperatively and repair microodes. However, for six years, nothing has been done … an important restoration has not been launched in this tapestry with crazy dimensions. A work that is classified as a historical monument and in the memory registry of the Unesco world.
If the tapestry moves, it will only be the third time. The first time was under Napoleon, when he was repatriated to Paris for fear of an English invasion. The second, during World War II, when the Germans transferred it to the Louvre Museum in Paris.
A “embroidered” 70 meters and almost 1,000 years
It should be said that this work has passed through time and is a small miracle. The fragile pendant measures 70 meters! It is a “embroidered account” that tells the conquest of England in 1066 by Guillaume, Duke of Normandy (who later became Guillaume The Conquisor). It was made with a needle on a fairly regular bis canvas, embroidered with four different wool threads available in ten natural tones. Therefore, it is rather an embroidery, a thousand years, seen by 400,000 people a year, at the Bayeux Museum. Therefore, it is not in very good condition.
It is for this reason that the Normand Museum will offer you a new scenario for 2027. The Museum will close its doors on August 31. In the following days, the tapestry that has been exposed in U since 1983 will be stoned. Then it will remain in the region, in a discreet place in secret.
In fact, in recent months, the State has not found a place large enough to restore the tapestry, according to BFMTV information. Because it is the State, through the Drac of Normandy (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs), the owner and responsible for its preventive conservation. The museum is only depositary of work and responsible for its valuation with the general public.
A round trip trip?
A “statement of state” was organized in 2020. He contradicted the experts who had expressed themselves in 2018. According to this study, no degradation formally avoids their trip. But, the political will perhaps prevails here on the principle of artistic caution.
According to the experts consulted, it is more the stage of abandonment and manipulation that is the most complex; and not its geographical displacement. According to our information, the work should be able to go by road and then through the channel tunnel to join the United Kingdom capital, in the summer of 2026. This device is not yet arrested but privileged.
Today, Bayeux’s tapestry is exposed to debut, in a rail, a little like a curtain. A presentation that suffers important tensions in textiles. After work, the tapestry will lean, and will be presented in an 11,000 m² museum extension, where the temperature of 19 ° C will be regular, as well as the 50 %and 50 lux hygrometry rate. It will be placed on a 70 -meter long furniture low manufacturing. This unprecedented and inclined furniture should also be used as a catering table. The State must finance this restoration up to 2 million euros.
An exchange of treasures
According to our information, the idea would be to deliver this unique furniture directly to the British London Museum. The museum can, in fact, accommodate the tapestry in a length of 70 meters in a wing! Therefore, it could be restored slightly on the site, if necessary … and be exposed in the best possible conditions.
The work of art will remain in London throughout a season, from September 2026 to June 2026. Therefore, it will be able to return in time to France for the Millennium celebrations of Guillaume The Conqueor, in 2027, that the Normandy region intends to celebrate.
The Bayeux Museum will have time to finish its work at the same time. The cost of the new museum project is 38 million euros. It will be funded by the Normandy region and the Calvados Department up to 10.5 million euros each, and 7 million by the city of Bayeux.
In exchange for this invaluable loan, France will receive … one hundred medieval pieces, which will be exhibited in the same period in France, in the museums of Caen and Rouen.
Source: BFM TV
