{"id":345593,"date":"2025-08-15T04:04:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/345593\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T04:04:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T04:04:52","slug":"france-tried-to-get-rosetta-stone-in-exchange-for-bayeux-tapestry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/345593\/","title":{"rendered":"France Tried to Get Rosetta Stone in Exchange for Bayeux Tapestry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen the Bayeux Tapestry crosses the Channel next year for a blockbuster run at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/t\/british-museum\/\" id=\"auto-tag_british-museum\" data-tag=\"british-museum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British Museum<\/a>, some in Paris hoped that their compatriots could admire it for free\u2014or at least on the cheap. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/3f1ec653-6236-4b6c-bcc1-759a23d5e3e8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Financial Times<\/a> reported Wednesday that French officials had lobbied for discounted or free entry for French citizens, a request British negotiators dismissed as a \u201ctry\u2011on\u201d that was \u201cnever going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe move was highly unusual. While French museums rarely offer free entry even to their own citizens, the British Museum charges no admission to its permanent collection\u2014though special exhibitions often require paid tickets. Still, the request emerged amid a broader cultural exchange: in return for the loan of the 900\u2011year\u2011old embroidery depicting the Norman Conquest of 1066, Britain will send across the Sutton Hoo treasures and the medieval Lewis Chessmen.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1248216595.jpg\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1248216595.jpg\" alt=\"BARCELONA, SPAIN - JUNE 08: A restorer vacuums Romanesque art master pieces at the Catalonia National Art Museum (MNAC) on June 08, 2020 in Barcelona, Spain. The MNAC will open on June 10 with its capacity reduced to 30%. Spain has largely ended the lockdown it imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19, which caused the death of more than 27,000 people across the country. This week all regions are on Phase One or Two, one month after all of Spain started on Phase Zero on May 4, 2020. (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"\" width=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tFrench negotiators had grander ambitions initially, according to the FT. They reportedly floated borrowing the Rosetta Stone\u2014the British Museum\u2019s single most\u2011renowned artifact. That proposal failed: the basalt slab, seized by Britain from France\u2019s Egyptian campaign in 1801, is considered immovable. (The stone, for those forgetting their history, was the key to French philologist Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Champollion\u2019s groundbreaking deciphering of ancient hieroglyphs.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tPresident Emmanuel Macron has framed the tapestry\u2019s loan as a symbol of renewed Anglo-French amity. The British Museum, whose chairman George Osborne has called the exhibition \u201cthe blockbuster show of our generation,\u201d expects attendance comparable to its most popular displays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe tapestry\u2019s voyage was first proposed in 2018 by then-Prime Minister Theresa May, but was repeatedly delayed over concerns about the artifact\u2019s fragility and logistical challenges. The loan was finally confirmed during Macron\u2019s state visit this summer and is scheduled for display at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027\u2014assuming the threads hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Bayeux Tapestry crosses the Channel next year for a blockbuster run at the British Museum, some&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[18097,2000,299,36,28066],"class_list":{"0":"post-345593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-british-museum","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-heritage"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115030807969233148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345593","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=345593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}