The UK Treasury will insure the Bayeux Tapestry for an estimated \u00a3800m when it goes on show at the British Museum (BM) next year. According to the Financial Times, which first reported details of the agreement, the protection will cover damage or loss during the transfer of the tapestry from Normandy and also while it is on display at the British Museum next autumn.<\/p>\n
The UK Treasury told the newspaper that it had \u201creceived an estimated valuation of the Bayeux Tapestry which has been provisionally approved\u201d with officials involved in the project told that the final valuation will be \u201caround \u00a3800m\u201d. The Treasury did not dispute this figure when approached.<\/p>\n
The artefact, created in the 1070s, will be covered under the Government Indemnity Scheme (GIS) which, according to a government website, is overseen by the UK department for culture, media and sport (DCMS). The scheme, backed by UK taxpayers, \u201callows art and cultural objects to be shown publicly in the UK which might not have been otherwise because the cost of insurance would have been too high\u201d. \u2060GIS is estimated to have saved UK museums and galleries around \u00a381m a year compared to the cost of commercial insurance.<\/p>\n
Details revealed in the six-page \u201cadministrative agreement\u201d between the French and UK culture ministries about the tapestry exhibition include organising a dry run of the transfer to London using a crate \u201ccontaining a facsimile of the tapestry equipped with a vibration analysis device\u201d. The tapestry will reportedly finally come to London in a truck via the Channel Tunnel.<\/p>\n
The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, will be displayed in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery of the British Museum from next September until July 2027 while its current home, the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy, undergoes renovations. The display will mark the first time the precious tapestry has been in Britain in almost 1,000 years.<\/p>\n