LONDON, Sept 5 \u2014 The British Museum yesterday insisted the Bayeux Tapestry\u2019s condition was \u201cvirtually unchanged\u201d after France said two broken threads had been noticed following the centuries-old embroidery\u2019s move to London.<\/p>\n
The 11th-century work will be displayed at the British Museum from next week until July next year as part of an unprecedented loan from France to Britain.<\/p>\n
French and British conservators carried out a full check of the tapestry\u2019s condition when it arrived in London in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cA break of two threads over a length of 70 metres of a tapestry was reported,\u201d French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard told the country\u2019s RTL broadcaster.<\/p>\n
The tapestry \u201cwas examined with particular care. It took a lot of time because the experts went over it centimetre by centimetre,\u201d Pegard said, while stressing any damage was minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo today, if we say it is in the same state after having arrived in London as it was when it left Bayeux, I think we\u2019re not very wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British Museum said in a statement sent to AFP that a draft report it received this week on the tapestry\u2019s condition before and after arrival \u201cstrongly suggests the Tapestry\u2019s condition is virtually unchanged\u201d.<\/p>\n
The London museum said the report on the embroidered work\u2019s condition is not yet final and has yet to be agreed by its conservators and the French team.<\/p>\n
\u2018No visible alteration\u2019<\/p>\n
According to the British Museum, thread breaks, measuring a few millimetres at most, are not considered significant damage, and could have happened at any point since \u201cbefore\u201d photos were taken in September 2025 at the Bayeux Museum.<\/p>\n
The tapestry\u2019s full condition check on arrival was the first such examination carried out since 2020, the British Museum noted.<\/p>\n
Depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings and the invasion by William the Conqueror\u2019s Norman army, the tapestry is widely thought to have been made in England before being transferred to Bayeux in France.<\/p>\n
It is believed to be the first time the 68m embroidered artwork has left France in more than 900 years, and the first time it has been moved in over 40 years.<\/p>\n
During its journey to London, the fragile artefact was kept under tight security in a specially designed double case to limit vibrations and maintain constant temperature and humidity levels.<\/p>\n
A French culture ministry official said in July after its arrival there had been \u201cno visible alteration\u201d to the embroidery in transit.<\/p>\n
La Croix newspaper earlier this week reported a more thorough check by experts had confirmed \u201cno major damage\u201d.<\/p>\n
They only noted \u201cslight tears in two areas\u201d of the linen canvas, the daily said.<\/p>\n
King Charles III on Wednesday hailed the loan of the artwork as a \u201cprecious symbol of trust at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations\u201d.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped the two countries could \u201cforge a bond as close as the threads of this thousand-year-old embroidery\u201d. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, Sept 5 \u2014 The British Museum yesterday insisted the Bayeux Tapestry\u2019s condition was \u201cvirtually unchanged\u201d after France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[139736,96279,18097,230234,34,2000,299,36,518],"class_list":["post-1187112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-battle-of-hastings","tag-bayeux-tapestry","tag-british-museum","tag-catherine-pegard","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-king-charles-iii"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1187113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}