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Speaker 3From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story on Sunday. I'm Manveen Rana.
Speaker 4So it's a few minutes before midnight on the 9th of July and I'm in central London. In a few hours time, the Bayer Tapestry will be arriving at the British Museum. I'm about to be locked into the museum for three hours until it arrives.
Speaker 3On a hot, sticky July night, Katie Gatins, the Sunday Times Europe correspondent, found herself spending a night at the museum.
Speaker 4One of the British Museum team has just told me it's like waiting for an Amazon parcel to arrive.
Speaker 3Katie was one of the lucky few who were about to witness history. The Bayer Tapestry, the long, winding embroidery that records the history of the Battle of Hastings, was arriving on British soil for the first time in almost a thousand years.
Speaker 4So I'm standing outside the back of the museum next to what looks like a massive, big garage. It's the height of two storeys, and what's going to happen is the truck carrying the tapestry is going to back into this big garage. So it actually drives into the museum, and then the crate holding the tapestry is going to be unloaded.
Speaker 3We're into the early hours of the morning at this point, and it's still pitch black outside. So the gates of the British Museum are opening.
Speaker 4So the lorry has just reversed up the driveway at the back entrance of the British Museum, and everybody's visibly breathing a sigh of relief.
Speaker 3The tapestry had arrived. Wow.
Speaker 4Bedtime.
Speaker 3The British Museum will be opening their new blockbuster exhibition to the public on the 10th of September, after a Glastonbury-like frenzy for tickets crashed the website when they were released, and sold out within hours.
Speaker 5Because this isn't an exhibition, it's like a national event. It's a very special thing.
Speaker 6May this tapestry, and the treasures that will travel in return, stand as symbols not only of our history, but also of the history of our country. Not only of our shared past, but our shared future.
Speaker 7Long live culture. Long live the friendship between France and the United Kingdom. Long vie à l'entente cordiale, et longue vie à l'entente amicale.
Speaker 8So why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain?
Speaker 3So why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? Why has it taken almost a thousand years for the Bayeux tapestry to return to Britain? And what has that long and arduous journey actually involved? And what has that long and arduous journey actually involved? And after all these centuries, why does this extraordinary piece of embroidery still capture the public imagination? The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. The story today, the Bayeux tapestry's long road back to Britain. try and keep it as safe and preserved as possible. Yeah, you're right. It really does feel like Bayer
Speaker 4fever has just kind of swept the country. The Bayer tapestry is coming back to the UK for the first time in, you know, a thousand years. It's a once in a generation event and it's very much the hot ticket of the season, of the year. And yeah, the journey to get the tapestry to the UK is, you know, an exhibition in itself. It's a 330 mile journey from Bayer in Normandy, where the tapestry has been for hundreds of years, to London. And, you know, as you might expect for an artefact as fragile as the Bayer tapestry, you know, made of cloth, very fragile, delicate kind of threads. The operation has been almost like a sort of military precision kind of operation. It was escorted with helicopters. It was escorted by police, you know, wearing bulletproof vests. And it came to the UK in a lorry and it was a 10 hour trip. The lorry could only travel at 50 kilometers per hour to minimize any kind of movement or vibrations on the tapestry. And it was a 10 hour trip. And it was a 10 hour trip. And it was a 10 hour trip. And two drivers took it in turns. They swapped over in the shuttle. It went sort of under the channel on the shuttle. Plus, along the route, there was an identical lorry. In case the lorry carrying the tapestry broke down, there was a backup. It was, you know, quite the spectacle.
Speaker 3It's moved like a foreign dignitary almost. And now that it's here, how are they keeping it to try and protect it as much as possible?
Speaker 4It has its own custom. It has its own custom made case, bulletproof, fireproof, bombproof, you name it. It's temperature controlled and has very special glass to sort of minimize any of the light damage used by the, you know, the lights in the exhibition room. And at night, the tapestry is covered up with cloth to, again, to minimize light damage. And it can only be exposed to visitors for seven and a half hours a day.
Speaker 3I mean, all of this has taken so much preparation. to make it happen and to make sure it's done to the standard necessary to preserve and protect the tapestry while it's in London. You were there when it arrived. I mean, when you spoke to the people behind this amazing loan, they must have been delighted.
Speaker 4Yeah, it really did feel like sort of Christmas Eve or something. And I mean, there was times when I had to sort of pinch myself and say, this is just a lorry backing into a driveway. Calm down. But I really did get swept along by the excitement of it. And that's just because, you know, a lot of people, you know, put in a lot of hard work to get it there. And I think that the way that the country is at the moment, it's just nice to celebrate something good, you know, celebrate something exciting. And there's a lot to sort of be down about. But this really does feel like something that the whole country can get behind.
Speaker 9I'm Michael Lewis. I'm curator of the Bayer Tapestry exhibition here at the British Museum.
Speaker 4Yeah, while I was waiting outside of the British Museum, waiting for the tapestry to arrive in the lorry, I spoke to the historian Michael Lewis, who is part of the committee who was tasked with bringing the tapestry for the UK. And he said he's basically been waiting for this moment for 30 years.
Speaker 9I started researching the Bayer Tapestry for my MA, which was in 1996. I've been studying the tapestry for 30 years, and then I did a PhD on the tapestry as well. Very excited. At the moment, waiting for the tapestry to arrive.
Speaker 4I also spoke to Nicholas Cullinan, the British Museum's director, who said, you know, it just doesn't disappoint you. You know, we all know what the tapestry looks like. But really, seeing it in person is completely, completely mind-blowing.
Speaker 5You read about things, and obviously this is an incredibly important and very famous work of art. But not everything in the flesh always lives up to the idea. This far surpasses it. I mean, in terms of the beauty, the scale, the impact, almost the emotional impact of it.
Speaker 3Katie, every schoolchild in this country will have studied something about the tapestry. We all know a bit about it, but actually... just give us some of the detail give us a quick guide to everything you need to know about the
Speaker 4tapestry I mean firstly how big is it yeah it's 70 meters long but only 50 centimeters tall and you know 70 meters doesn't sound like a lot but really when you see it stretched out in front of you it's really long and by the way this is the first time that historians think you know in centuries potentially ever that the tapestry will have been laid out horizontally in one long long line and in the Bayeux Museum in France it's always been hung and curved back on itself like a horseshoe so this is the first time it will ever be laid flat in its entirety and it was created in the late 11th century about 1077 and historians think it was created by nuns in Canterbury and it was commissioned by Odo who was the you bishop of Bayeux and half-brother of William the Conqueror and obviously it depicts the events of the Battle of Hastings but also the events leading up to it as well and something that historians are very eager to tell you is that it's not a tapestry it is actually an embroidery an embroidery by by
Speaker 3these nuns who are part embroidery experts but also historians I mean just remind us exactly that the sort of the history that it depicts
Speaker 4it tells the story of Harold Godwinson who's the Earl of Wessex he was England's wealthiest and most powerful nobleman and so in the year 1064 Harold was shipwrecked and ended up in France where he met William of Normandy who was then Duke of Normandy and the tapestry sort of depicts his journey across France with William and while in France Harold took a sacred oath to promise William the English crown but then when Harold returned to England he was actually made King of England causing William to then invade which led to the Battle of Hastings so having become great
Speaker 3friends and having effectively pledged loyalty to William and promised him the crown when he gets the crown himself King Harold slightly changes his mind leads to the big battle just remind us how
Speaker 4that ends yep the most famous scene of the Bayeux tapestry is Harold with an arrow in his eye Harold dies and William is made King of England
Speaker 3I think the arrow in the eye is the image every child remembers from that tapestry I mean I can't wait to see it in person but this embroidery so unique I mean is this how people recorded history at the time
Speaker 4how normal was this no it's it's really is one of the biggest and sort of most detailed and most important artifacts from this period and it's how we get a lot of knowledge of you know what happened during the the Battle of Hastings it was made contemporarily so only historians estimate about 10 years after the battle and something that I feel like is really important is that I found really interesting that Michael Lewis the historian told me that you know most artworks around this time were religious another thing I suppose that's quite incredible about the
Speaker 9Bayeux tapestry to me anyway quite generally is that a lot of artworks from this period are religious in nature but this is obviously telling a very contemporary story so the people who created it well they did copy conventions in art but they had to adapt them really to in order to tell this kind of new story I mean obviously the Norman conquest the invasion of England had only just happened 10 years ago before and yet they're you know they're having to kind of invent ways of telling that story this depicts very normal scenes like
Speaker 4soldiers falling off horses or eating kebabs even and dogs and boats and it it really does feel very contemporary like it could have been made yesterday that the figures themselves look almost quite contemporary cartoonish you know if you think about the the Bayeux tapestry it's just one long cartoon strip really and I think that gives people a sort of extra sense of relatability to it
Speaker 9yeah I think the cartoon nature of it makes it feel that it's kind of real to us as well kind of very relatable like you say
Speaker 4and Nicholas Cullinan the museum director told me something that has stuck with me that because of the scale there's just this room for beautiful human moments in the tapestry
Speaker 5there's that wonderful scene of a mother fleeing a burning house with her child and you realize too that actually this didn't just change and shape the nation it changed and shapes the way that the nation looked you know that houses and homes had to be raised to build Norman fortresses that we all know now many of which still stand of course and realizing just the ripple effect after ripple effects of this seismic events
Speaker 4yeah and and so often in artworks or you know artifacts from that age normal people or the poorest people are often not depicted and sort of left out yeah it's extraordinary that like sort of what you're saying just like a normal mother with a carrying a child is is it's immortalized in that
Speaker 5way I mean obviously it's not maybe the the defining images but it does make the time to think about the impact on normal people in quieter moments and grief and loss although it was probably not the case for a lot of people but it was probably the case for a lot of people probably commissioned to mark a decisive victory there's a great deal of humanity and even humility in it that it it doesn't glorify one side it shows both sides as having dignity and having having
Speaker 3value and Katie for you what are the best parts what what really draws you to the tapestry I wasn't
Speaker 4expecting to be quite so bowled away by it actually and something that really stuck out to me was the embroidery you know it's 3d almost it sort of bursts off the off the cloth and it's really colorful you know it's just this riot of kind of blues and reds it feels very vivid to think that this was this was made a thousand years ago sort of blew my mind a little bit you know the horses just look so real and the people they could be just you know visitors to the British Museum themselves everybody looks quite normal so it did
Speaker 3feel very special it is an amazing connection to people who lived in such a different era and you suddenly realize how much still survives it's also beautifully preserved and you describe the threads and the colors and that's partly because it hasn't moved for such a long time well you you mentioned
Speaker 4it's beautifully preserved but it actually isn't you know I mean although a lot of care is going into transporting the tapestry now and keeping it you know vibration free and temperature controlled you know there's splodges of wax on it it is imperfect it's had a thousand years of wear and tear and people have perhaps not cared for it in the way that we would now and there's also been some slightly dubious restoration attempts putting different threads back back into it some conservators say has actually damaged it more it's perfectly imperfect sort of thing yeah
Speaker 3and for it to arrive in London now this loan has taken a long time it's been a long time coming
Speaker 4it's not the first time Britain has asked for it yeah what I found interesting is actually speaking to some of the historians and officials in the British Museum is the the Bayeux Tapestry as you said every school child in England knows it or has studied a small part of it but in France it's actually not very famous I think it has a bigger sense of importance in England which is interesting because you know it's a battle which the English lost to the French and you know shows the conquering of of England but yes we the British have requested it for years so in 1953 for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation that was one of the first times that it was requested the V&A actually have been in for it for for decades they also requested it again in 1966 but they were always refused
Speaker 3coming up how exactly did the British Museum secure the tapestry's first ever loan a loan that's been decades in the making that's in just a moment Hi this is Brooke DeVard from Naked Beauty I am always looking for ways to elevate our daily rituals and the Kohler Smart Toilet is proof that design changes everything it's the stunning sculptural piece that feels like quiet luxury for your bathroom it totally transforms your daily ritual into something elevated with customizable cleansing tools, touch-ups, cleaning tools, and other things you can do with your daily routine in just a moment.
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Speaker 3Grainger, for the ones who get it done.
Speaker 4Exactly. It was obviously, historians believe, made in Canterbury and then taken to France to be displayed at the Bayeux Cathedral. And in the Middle Ages, it was displayed annually in the nave before just sort of being forgotten about and lost before being rediscovered in 1729. It's been in France ever since, but it's moved back and forward sort of between Bayeux and Paris. During the French Revolution, it was almost destroyed. It was sort of briefly commandeered as tarpaulin to cover these wagons.
Speaker 3Tarpaulin.
Speaker 4Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 3Extraordinary when you think about the care being taken over it now.
Speaker 4But thanks to one outraged lawyer, he ordered the wagons to return and the tapestry was saved. Napoleon brought it to Paris to display at the Louvre in 1803. And then during World War II, the Nazis took a keen interest in the Bayeux tapestry. Oh, really? Really. Yeah. In June 1944, it was being planned to be moved to Berlin as the Allied forces advanced. But then codebreakers in Bletchley Park deciphered Heinrich Himmler's message requesting it moved to Berlin. And then the Allied forces raided the Louvre cellars where it was being held and recaptured the tapestry. So, happy ending. It's had a lot of near misses.
Speaker 3Wow. A combination of Bletchley Park and the French Revolution. Resistance saved it for another hundreds of generations, hopefully. How did this opportunity to bring it to Britain first come about?
Speaker 4Serious talks reopened a few years ago when the Bayeux Museum where the tapestry was being held was planning its renovation. And one of the people who'd been advocating for this for over a decade is Michael Lewis, who I mentioned before, he's the curator of the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum.
Speaker 9And I was very lucky to be. I was asked to join the Bayeux Tapestry Scientific Committee in 2013, which was looking at kind of re-displaying the tapestry in Bayeux Museum. You know, it kind of really occurred to me almost straight away when they said, oh, we're going to close the museum for a long time. I mean, obviously, my colleagues in France were thinking, well, this is a nice idea, Michael, but I don't really see how this is going to happen. It's obviously a very precious object, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 4And he felt like this was something that people should see.
Speaker 9The way I look at this is that this provides an opportunity to show the tapestry. To a new audience.
Speaker 3And yet they've always refused to learn in the past. Why is that? I mean, what are the difficulties around allowing it to move?
Speaker 4Well, the truth is that historians just had no idea how this would travel. There were two dummy runs using a cloth and sort of measuring the vibrations on it. But in reality, the cloth of the tapestry is so much older and so much more delicate and fragile that historians didn't. Conservators didn't really know what the full impact of moving it would be. And it's priceless and completely uninsurable. In fact, for this exhibition, it's backed by the UK's indemnity scheme, which is an alternative to commercial insurance, which covers artworks and cultural objects. And it's being insured for 800 million pounds. And, you know, in France, there was 40,000 strong petitions of protesting that it would be moved countries. Artists. Like David Hockney wrote an op-ed saying that moving it was madness.
Speaker 3Wow. I mean, given those difficulties, how did the British Museum finally persuade France to part with it for a while?
Speaker 4Well, interestingly, French President Emmanuel Macron gave the king a lot of credit for making the loan happen.
Speaker 7So his attachment, his willingness to have this project. And I'm very happy to make it with you, Mr. Prime Minister.
Speaker 4And I think, you know, during the announcement at the British Museum last year, he admitted that if you want to find a reason why it shouldn't happen, why it shouldn't be moved, there are no shortage of experts who will come forward saying why the loan was totally impossible.
Speaker 7I have to say, I have to confess, we did our best not to be put in the situation to make the loan. To make this loan of Bayeux Tapestry. And we found the best experts of the world to explain in perfect details why it was totally impossible to make such a loan.
Speaker 4But he decided it was worth doing as a measure of goodwill.
Speaker 7Because it will be the best symbol of our common work together. And the fact that we are totally committed to this work in common, hand in hand.
Speaker 3And Katie, I mean, do you know anything about the sort of behind the scenes negotiations? Like what actually got it over the line?
Speaker 4It's been very secretive. And I think, you know, for the V&A, who have obviously requested it twice, it was obviously a bit of a blow. But the British Museum argued, apparently, that only they had a gallery that was long enough for it to be displayed to its full 70 metre length, you know, lying down, which was obviously quite an attractive bid for the French.
Speaker 3So clearly a big win for the British Museum. You've spoken to many of the artists. You've spoken to many of the people there. What do they think about it now that it's actually been agreed it's happened?
Speaker 4Well, Michael Lewis was absolutely buzzing. You're just like, can you stop smiling? You're just like absolutely buzzing about it.
Speaker 9Yeah, well, for me, it's been quite a personal...
Speaker 4It was fantastic standing next to him as it sort of pulled into the museum. He was almost like vibrating.
Speaker 9Given I've kind of advocated for the loan for such a long time, you know, since 2013, I mean, obviously the arrival... Arrival in the UK today is a really big moment for me. It's quite an emotional one.
Speaker 4And Michael Lewis pointed out more fragile items are transported around the world all of the time. The beer tapestry just happens to be very big and very important, and the world's eyes are on it.
Speaker 9Let's face it, museums like the British Museum are moving archaeological, historical, valuable objects all the time. It's not new work. In fact, if we... If we didn't move any objects about anywhere, then obviously we wouldn't have exhibitions in other places. You know, we wouldn't be able to put these collections together.
Speaker 3There is still a backlash, though. You mentioned some of the people who didn't think it should be moved. Are they still annoyed?
Speaker 4Now that the move has gone ahead, I think those voices have quietened down a little bit. But we will only understand the full impact of moving the tapestry in the coming months. And the museum... The museum may decide to transport it differently for its return journey.
Speaker 3Katie, you've followed the journey for some time. You've seen the tapestry in its new home. What do you think? Was it worth the risk?
Speaker 4There are lots of reasons why things shouldn't happen and the risks and the damage done. But at the end of the day, this is a tapestry. It was meant to be seen. It was meant to be displayed. And I think just, you know, keeping it in a box in storage or keeping it in France in a smaller museum, I think probably is not the way it was intended. And it's obviously a massive coup for the British Museum. And as I said earlier, it's just something to be excited about and something for the whole country to get behind.
Speaker 3It's just something to be excited about. That was Katie Gatins, Europe correspondent for The Sunday Times. If you have any questions about this or any other story, do drop us a line to thestoryatthetimes.com and we'll do our best to answer them. The producer and sound designer today was Sophie McNulty. The executive producer was Edward Drummond. And theme composition was by Mal Neseto. Thanks for listening. We'll be back, as usual, tomorrow.
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