Lending Bayeux tapestry to UK is ‘heritage crime', say French protesters

Telegraph

12 hours ago

More than 40,000 people have signed a French petition against sending the Bayeux Tapestry to Britain after warnings that the risks amount to a 'true crime against heritage'.
Emmanuel Macron announced the decision to loan the work to the British Museum in London for 10 months during the French president's state visit to Britain in July.
The almost thousand-year-old work charting the 1066 Norman conquest is due to be loaned from summer 2026 to August 2027 in exchange for ancient 'treasures' mainly from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo site.
However, the decision has appalled some conservationists and experts who warn that the embroidery, which has 24,000 stains, 16,445 creases, nearly 10,000 holes or gaps, and around 30 rips, is far too fragile to cross the Channel.
Among them is Didier Rykner, the editor-in-chief of art history and heritage preservation website La Tribune de L'Art. He launched a petition last month, which 'solemnly' calls on president Macron to ditch the plan, and that has garnered more than 43,000 signatures.
It cites a top French state cultural adviser in Normandy, Cécile Binet, who in a video published in February, warned: 'As our studies progressed, we realised that the Tapestry was too fragile to be moved over a long distance and that any additional handling would pose a risk to its conservation.'
Speaking to Le Monde last month, Isabelle Attard, the director of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum from 2005 to 2010, said: 'How can we fail to take seriously the scientific advice that has been saying for years that the Bayeux Tapestry should be moved as little as possible, and then only for the purposes of preservation and restoration?'
'I hoped common sense would prevail and that nobody would go through with an idea that's as dangerous as it is absurd,' she said.
Mr Rykner said: 'I am not one to start petitions. But the Bayeux Tapestry is a unique work of art. There is nothing else like it, not even the Mona Lisa, of which there are several copies. To lend it against the advice of all the experts is another blow.'
'I cannot understand why the British Museum would agree to such a risky transfer. It is mind-boggling. The British should sign this petition,' he told France 3.
'A risk of ending up like Lascaux 1'
Judging by the comments, some have. One signatory, Stephen from Accrington, Lancs, wrote: 'I took generations of school children to see the tapestry and believe that there is a huge risk of it ending up like Lascaux 1, unvisitable.' He was referring to the famous cave paintings in the Dordogne now closed to the public due to the risk of damage.
'There is a certified risk by all the people who have worked on restoring it that it will be irreparably damaged, so it should stay in France,' he wrote.
Despite such concerns, Mr Macron last month hailed the 'unprecedented exchange' of artworks as 'the desire to revitalise the cultural relationship between our two countries and the trust that exists between us today'.
Lisa Nandy, the UK Culture Secretary, called the 68-metre-long (224ft-long) piece, which dates from around 1077, 'one of the most iconic pieces of art ever produced in the UK'.
'The British Museum is one of the world's most visited museums and is a fitting place to host this most treasured piece of our nation's history,' she said.
If the loan goes ahead, it would be a first: in nearly a thousand years, the Bayeux Tapestry has never crossed the Channel.
Napoleon briefly exhibited it in Paris in 1804, and Himmler ordered its transfer to the Louvre during the Second World War. But it has never left French soil.
Bayeux's Right-wing mayor, Patrick Gomont, dismissed concerns over the loan, pointing out that in any case it has to be moved as the museum that normally houses the tapestry is to close for two years for renovation from Sept 1.
It will be reopened in time for the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror in 2028.
'For 10 years, I've been told it can't be transported,' Mr Gomont told Le Monde. 'When people don't want something, they come up with every argument against it. I don't see why the Bayeux Tapestry would be better folded in a crate than displayed to the British public, as long as presentation and lighting recommendations are followed.'
Antoine Verney, the curator of the Bayeux museums, said: 'I have no doubt that we share the same conservation requirements as the British Museum. The rules must be strictly identical to those imposed on us as custodians of the work.'