Last week saw the signing of a historic loan agreement for the Bayeux Tapestry – sometimes described as one of the first comic strips in history – to come to the British Museum for display next year. But wait, haven’t we already got… more than one?
In exchange, treasures from the British Museum that represent all four nations of the UK – including Sutton Hoo and the Lewis chess pieces – will travel to museums in Normandy, France.
The agreement is the culmination of discussions that began back in 2018 about a possible loan, which will the British and French governments agree provide immense cultural and educational benefits for citizens in both countries, was announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, and was signed by Director of the British Museum, Nicholas Cullinan.
“This is the first time this national treasure will leave French soil,” noted President Macron. “It marks an unprecedented cultural partnership between our two countries — a powerful symbol of our Entente amicale.”
Referring to the Tapestry and the Sutton Hoo treasures, Prime Minister Keir Starmer commented: “Both these treasures contain stories of war and of peace, of power and of politics, alliances and enemies that we still know all too well in our modern world. They show us how connected our countries have always been, they deepen our appreciation of our shared history and enrich the relationship between our two nations today’.
The 70-metre Bayeux Tapestry – also known as the Queen Matilda Tapestry, and more formally known as the “Telle du Conquest” (for “canvas of the Conquest”) – depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, and is due to go on display in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery at the British Museum in the autumn of 2026. The Museum will draw on its own collection as well as other loans in order to tell a rich story about this period of history.
The Tapestry, described by art historian Bendor Grosvenor, author of the award-nominated book, The Invention of British Art, as “One of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever made”, has only been exhibited twice outside Bayeux. The first was in 1803, at the request of Napoleon Bonaparte, to show it to the whole of Paris, and the second was in 1945. The exhibition was seen as a tribute to the troops of the Liberation.
This will be the first time that the tapestry has been shown in the UK since it was made, almost 1000 years ago – and is expected to be one of the British Museum’s most popular exhibitions ever.
The Museum’s status as the UK’s most visited attraction, as well as one of the most popular in the world – attracting 6.5 million visitors in 2024 – means it is well placed to ensure that the widest possible audience will have the opportunity to enjoy it.
The Town of Bayeux, where the Tapestry is normally exhibited, has welcomed the loan of the thousand-year-old work of art, which belongs to the French State and symbolises a shared history and heritage on both sides of the Channel.
The town has always maintained strong links with Britain, and is delighted that the piece of art, which it has cared for for almost a thousand years, is to return temporarily to the place where it is believed to have been created, possibly by nuns, at the end of the 11th century.
Several centuries after the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry, an inscription on the pediment of the memorial to the largest military cemetery of the World War Two, managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, recalls that Bayeux was liberated by British troops, who themselves had once been defeated by William the
Conqueror: “We, defeated by William, have liberated the country of the victor”.
Every year around 6th June, commemorations linked to the Normandy Landings take place in Bayeux Cathedral in the presence of a member of the Royal Family.
“The loan of this work, which is unique in the world and embodies a heritage shared on both sides of the Channel, makes sense and its legitimacy is indisputable,” commented Patrick Gomont, Mayor of Bayeux and Vice-President of the Normandy Region in charge of Culture and Heritage.
“An exhibition in London, where our Duke of Normandy was crowned, will be a historic moment in the long history of the Bayeux Tapestry. This event will also mark the year 2027, with the celebration of the millennium of the birth of William the Conqueror, organised by the Normandy Region.”
Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum, said: “The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most important and unique cultural artefacts in the world, which illustrates the deep ties between Britain and France and has fascinated people across geographies and generations.
“It is hard to overstate the significance of this extraordinary opportunity of displaying it at the British Museum and we are profoundly grateful to everyone involved,” he continued. “This will be the first time the Bayeux Tapestry has been in the UK since it was made, almost 1000 years ago.
“We are also delighted to send treasures from the British Museum representing all four nations of the UK – including Sutton Hoo treasures and the Lewis chess pieces – to France in return.
“This is exactly the kind of international partnership that I want us to champion and take part in: sharing the best of our collection as widely as possible – and in return displaying global treasures of the world never seen in London before to a global audience.”
The Bayeux Museum, too, has welcomed the opportunity to work closely with another cultural institution as prestigious as the British Museum, the future temporary exhibition venue for the Tapestry.
“We have had a close relationship with the British Museum for several years,” explains Antoine Verney, Curator of Bayeux Museums. “We have already called on the considerable expertise of their conservation team, who have been part of our scientific committee since 2013 on the project for the future Bayeux museum.
“This loan is an opportunity to enhance the value of the work, and the sharing of resources will improve our knowledge of it, particularly in terms of understanding the context in which it was created,” he continued. “This partnership of historical and scientific expertise will also help to support and nurture the project for the new Bayeux museum, for example in its outreach to the British public, who account for 25 per cent of the museum’s overall attendance.”
“Once in a generation there’s a British Museum exhibition that eclipses all others,” noted George Osborne, Chair of the British Museum Trustees. “Think in previous ages of Tutankhamun and the Terracotta Warriors. The Bayeux Tapestry will be the blockbuster show of our generation.
“I know it will capture the imagination of an entire nation.
“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. 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.
“And we’re thrilled too that the people of France will get to see some of the greatest treasures from all four nations of the United Kingdom.
“We’ve worked hard at the Museum to make this extraordinary loan possible. I want to thank this government – the ministers, officials and diplomats – for all their help in getting it over the line. It is the most visible expression of a stronger relationship between Britain and France. Merci beaucoup!”
The British Museum has a long history of interest in the Bayeux Tapestry, and a longstanding relationship with the Bayeux Museum. An international conference was held at the British Museum in 2008, and the Museum has been a member of the Bayeux Museum’s scientific committee since 2013 – contributing curatorial expertise.
The announcement of the loan comes ahead of the temporary closure of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in France for renovation work, from 1st September 2025, with reopening planned for October 2027.
The tapestry will return to France the following year in time for the Bayeux Museum’s reopening.
The Bayeux Tapestry: A Potted Guide
Listed in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” register, the 70-metre-long and 50-centimetre-high, the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidery of woollen threads on linen canvas, tells the story of the conquest of England in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy. The embroidery in wool thread on linen cloth was created in the UK and dates back to the 11th century.
Through 58 scenes, 626 characters and 202 horses, the tapestry gives an account of the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other. It provides information about civil and military architecture, armour and seafaring in the Viking tradition, as well as precious details of everyday life.
The Tapestry was probably created in Canterbury, perhaps by local nuns. It may have initially been meant for Dover Castle — Odo, maternal half brother to William the Conqueror, who most likely commissioned it, was also Earl of Kent for a time. However, in 2019, new scholarship by Christopher Norton, art history professor emeritus of the University of York, presented evidence that the masterpiece was originally designed specifically to be exhibited in Bayeux Cathedral, probably for its dedication in July 1077.
Indeed, by 1077 the Tapestry had arrived in Normandy, and was displayed at Bayeux Cathedral. It has remained in France ever since, although it may have had a narrow escape during the French Revolution when, as art historian Bendor Grosvenor reveals in his book, “it was almost turned into a wagon cover”.
The Tapestry has been the inspiration for copies, noted below, and parody, in film title sequences such as Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Vikings, an element of The Simpsons feature film, and Doctor Who artist Daryl Joyce even added a TARDIS to one scene, back in 2002!
The Bayeux Museum, where the tapestry has been displayed since 1983, will close for a two-year renovation from 1st September 2025.
Following the announcement of the possible loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom at the Sandhurst Franco-British summit in January 2018, an administrative arrangement was signed in June of the same year between the French and British Ministries of Culture, paving the way for exchanges between the two countries to commemorate a shared cultural history. It has taken a few years to implement this arrangement, a time which has enabled studies to be carried out with a detailed condition report of the work and engineering developments to ensure its conservation, future display and handling methods that guarantee its integrity.
“In 2018, we did not know enough about the condition of the work, which is why the loan had to wait, even though we always believed in the evidence of its realisation. All the expertise we have developed and shared with the Ministry of Culture is now a major contribution to making the loan a reality,” explains Loïc Jamin, deputy mayor in charge of museums and tourism.
• Explore The Bayeux Tapestry Online
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• ArtLyst: Bayeux Tapestry: UK Return Reignites Regional Heritage Wars
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• The Museums Journal: Macron: Bayeux Tapestry deal ‘took longer than Brexit’
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We’ve Already Got One…
Cartoonist Glenn Marshall has offered the French his version of The Bayeaux Tapestry, on the basis of “one out, one in”. It was created at the Hastings 1066 Battle of Hastings anniversary festival.
A replica, crafted from C.A. Stothard’s sketches and engraved by James Basire between 1819-23, stretches to over 65 feet. More information here
Stothard was appointed to copy the tapestry in 1816. His drawings survive at the Society of Antiquaries, London,
• See also: How the V&A once owned a piece of the Bayeux tapestry
• Reading Museum: Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry
In the late 19th century, an extremely ambitious project was undertaken by a group of Victorian embroiderers to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry in full, painstakingly reproducing every single detail, stitch-by-stitch, so that the Tapestry’s timeless story could be enjoyed by the people of Britain. Reflecting its Victorian creation, nude characters in the original are clothed.
Today, this artwork, Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry, is held at Reading Museum and displayed in a specially designed Bayeux Gallery.
Related News Story from The Guardian: Never mind the Norman bollocks: Reading’s replica Bayeux tapestry is a prudish triumph!
• The Alderney Bayeux Tapestry
In 1997, embroidery artist Jan Messent created a reconstruction showing William accepting the surrender of English nobles at Berkhamsted. In 2012, a community project on the Island of Alderney in the Channel Islands began work on an embroidered reproduction of the “missing” Bayeux Tapestry scenes, inspired by the work of Jan Messent. It was completed in 2013. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Alderney, and took great interest in this unique and ambitious project.
Orkney Library displays a tapestry which tells the story of St Magnus. “It’s not quite as old/long/historically significant as the Bayeux Tapestry but still well worth a visit,” the Library says.
Historic Royal Palaces partnered with Stitches in Time, a local charity based in Tower Hamlets, to display a beautiful tapestry that explores daily life during the COVID pandemic. The project called upon embroiders from across the world in April 2020 to capture scenes of their lockdown experiences.
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Comic Strip
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Comic Strip by Giles Pivard and Shelton Arthur (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
The Bayeux Tapestry is a fine 11th century master-piece which has proved of exceptional documentary value towards our current knowledge of the period. When discovering the tapestry for the first time, visitors simply marvel at the great diversity of characters, clothes, buildings, ships and other features it portrays, literally losing themselves in what could be considered as the world’s very first comic strip, dating from the Middle Ages.
Comic strips have, of course, moved on with their balloons, onomatopoeia and a number of specific terms used in this 8th century art, such as foreground, angle shot, framing, dialogues; very much the same words as those used in cinema.
Gilles Pivard and Arthur Shelton are delighted to present a compilation of this great fresco in a somewhat more contemporary comic strip style. However, to ensure that the work’s authenticity remains intact, neither its illustrations nor its historical contents have been altered. The authors’aim is to offer a clear and comprehensive interpretation of this epic adventure for the largest possible readership. They sincerely hope that this book will incite readers to further explore the fascinating story of William the Conqueror, the history of the Bayeux Tapestry, or even history in general.
Sutton Hoo
In 1939, Edith Pretty, a landowner at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, asked archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate the largest of several Anglo-Saxon burial mounds on her property. Inside, he made one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of all time.
Beneath the mound was the imprint of a 27-metre-long (86ft) ship. At its centre was a ruined burial chamber packed with treasures: Byzantine silverware, sumptuous gold jewellery, a lavish feasting set, and, most famously, an ornate iron helmet. Dating to the early AD 600s, this outstanding burial clearly commemorated a leading figure of East Anglia, the local Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It may even have belonged to a king.
The Sutton Hoo ship burial provides remarkable insights into early Anglo-Saxon England. It reveals a place of exquisite craftsmanship and extensive international connections, spanning Europe and beyond. It also shows that the world of great halls, glittering treasures and formidable warriors described in Anglo-Saxon poetry was not a myth.
Lewis chess pieces
Made from walrus ivory in the 12th century, the skilfully carved Lewis chess pieces are considered the most famous chess pieces in the world.
Buried in a sand dune on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, the chess pieces were discovered as part of a hoard in 1831, thought to have belonged to a trader travelling from Norway to Ireland. The chess pieces testify to the strong cultural and political connections between the kingdoms of the British Isles and Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, as well as to the growing popularity of chess within Europe.
The chess pieces consist of elaborately carved walrus ivory and whales’ teeth in the form of seated kings and queens with comical expressions, bishops, knights on their mounts, standing warders and obelisk-shaped pawns.
• National Museums Scotland: The story of the Lewis chess pieces
• The Invention of British Art by Bendor Grosvenor (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
Britain has produced some of the world’s most famous artists and paintings. But what made British art ‘great’? Was it the individual genius of artists like Hogarth and Constable? Or were their careers shaped by a distinctly ‘British’ society, culture and history? And if so, why has that distinctiveness been overlooked, and why have we ignored so many of the characters who helped create the story of British art?
In The Invention of British Art, Bendor Grosvenor embarks on a journey of discovery through an incredible array of artworks and artists from 10,000 BCE to the nineteenth century, revealing how the art from these isles was created, what made it distinctive, and why it took so long to emerge.
From folk art to the role of female artists, from the influences of invaders to the colonised territories of the British Empire, the book embraces previously overlooked contributions to the story of British art and explores the cultural, political and economic factors that helped to shape it.Beautifully illustrated throughout, The Invention of British Art is a provocative and captivating survey of the glories of British art.
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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