The British Museum has opened a sold-out exhibition featuring the 1,000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry in London. The 70-metre medieval embroidery, on an unprecedented loan from France until next July, drew long online queues, royal previews, and intense public fascination as visitors packed the galleries.
The British Museum Opens the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition
Long online queues formed immediately after the first tranche of tickets was released on July 1, which were snapped up within hours during the 273-year-old museum’s single biggest day of sales.
The British Museum has so far sold a record 100,000 tickets, which cost £25-£33 for adults, for a run expected to last 10 to 11 months.
At 10 am on Thursday, the British Museum opened its doors to the general public for the most hotly anticipated exhibition in its history. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected to file past the fragile 70-metre-long artefact, which tells the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066, during the next 11 months. Since 1931, British governments have tried to negotiate the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France, before it finally arrived amid tight security this summer. Tickets for the first four months of the exhibition, described as a once-in-a-generation show
, sold out within hours during the single biggest day of sales.
A Diplomatic Triumph and Royal Preview
The unprecedented loan from France, the result of years of diplomacy and set to last until next July, has been hailed a symbol of renewed cross-Channel ties following the rancour of Brexit. Previous plans to loan the tapestry – this panel depicts King Harold’s death – were aborted in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1966 for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.
The temporary transfer of the artifact follows years of diplomacy. Many in the UK see the loan as the tapestry coming home, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham having called it a “return”.
King Charles III said the temporary transfer was a a precious symbol of trust at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations
.
Last week’s royal preview featured the king and queen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. Last week, before the exhibition opened to the public, Britain’s King Charles visited, standing near dignitaries including King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham as they pored over the medieval embroidery through its security glass.
Exhibition Experience and Public Mania
The Times newspaper called the exhibition a spine-shivering experience
that has sparked “Tapestry-maniain Britain, while The Economist dubbed it the
hottest ticket” around. Depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings and the invasion by William the Conqueror’s Norman army, the tapestry has shadowy origins. It is widely thought to have been made in England almost 1,000 years ago before being transferred to Bayeux in France.
Around the country, students who learn about the artwork in history classes are gearing up for school trips, while businesses are bidding to capitalise on some of the fervour. Dish towels, aprons and mugs featuring scenes from the tapestry are already on sale at the London museum, while luxury store Liberty has released cushions inspired by the artwork, priced at £165 each. Even the budget bakery chain Greggs has jumped on the bandwagon, lightheartedly unveiling its own embroidered “Ta-Pastryto tell the story of
the conquest of the British high street by our most treasured (and tasty) artifacts. A museum in Reading, west of London, is enjoying a flurry of attention for its little-known Victorian replica of the tapestry. And in the heart of the capital, near the British Museum, a pub has hung up an eight-metre embroidered
Beer Tapestry” recounting the history of brewing in a playful tribute to the more violent original.
The first visitors to the British Museum’s blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition spoke of their excitement at seeing with their own eyes the 1,000-year-old embroidery many remember from school lessons. The sell-out display, which opened to the public on Thursday, has sparked a Bayeux craze across Britain, with newspapers producing special guides, online discussions about securing tickets, and the pub opposite the museum temporarily changing its name to The Beer Tapestry
. The masterpiece will be shown at the museum in central London for the next 10 months, having left France for the first time since the 11th century. It depicts the Norman invasion of England in 1066, the most famous date in the nation’s history.
It's just magical, isn't it?
said Pauline Gairey, 53, a finance professional who had travelled from Wales, and recalled studying the tapestry at school.
Scenes from inside the museum showed staff dressed in medieval battle dress with helmets, shields and swords, in another sign of Bayeux mania. The 70-metre-long tapestry is being displayed in a bespoke glass case, with ticket holders allotted 40 minutes to view it from an elevated platform, before heading down some stairs to view the stitching up close.
It's amazing that the colour is still so vivid…it's amazing it's survived so well and so long,
said Richard Samuel, 60, a solicitor, coming out of the exhibition.
Believed to have been sewn by English seamstresses before being taken to France, the embroidery tells the story of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman defeat of Anglo-Saxon King Harold II.
Charmaine Tsia, 56, a customer service manager visiting from Australia, said the length of it and just the incredible detail
had been what she most enjoyed about the exhibition.
Condition Checks and Financial Backing
Much of this was made possible by the financial support of a billionaire benefactor whose name is on posters advertising the exhibition, and who kept a discreet profile at the official reception for the Bayeux Tapestry last week.
Igor Tulchinsky Funds the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition
Igor Tulchinsky is the founder, chief executive and chair of a US-based investment firm, WorldQuant. In February, he was named as the sponsor of the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, with media reports valuing the deal at £5m ($6.75m). Next month he is set to chair a fundraising ball at the museum in recognition of his support for the Bayeux Tapestry
. But among Tulchinsky’s other business interests is a defence tech-focused venture capital fund based in Israel headed by a recently retired army commander who has promoted the use of remote-controlled vehicles in Gaza described by one rights group as a direct tool for committing genocide
. The sponsorship deal predates WorldQuant Genesis, Tulchinsky’s new Tel Aviv-based fund, which was launched in April. And while at this stage the scale and precise nature of WorldQuant’s investment in defence technologies remains unclear, the revelations about Tulchinsky’s business interests in Israel are likely to raise further questions for the museum, which has faced calls from MPs for an investigation into its removal of several references to Palestine in its galleries, as well as criticism over controversial sponsorship deals. Last week, the Guardian revealed that the museum gave a private view of the Bayeux Tapestry to Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of Palantir, a tech firm that supplies the Israeli military with advanced AI and data-analysis software.
