Bayeux Tapestry arrives at the British Museum in London after secret English Channel crossing

The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived at the British Museum in London, marking its first return to England since it was made in the 1070s, ahead of an autumn display. British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan announced on Instagram at around 6am on Friday, 10 July, that the 70m embroidery had crossed the Channel; the BBC reported it reached the museum’s loading bay around 2.50am after being moved from a secret location in northern France and transported by lorry through the Channel Tunnel on a 350-mile, roughly 11-hour trip. The tapestry will be shown in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery from 10 September until July 2027 while the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy is renovated, and it will be displayed horizontally for the first time at the British Museum. The French state owns the tapestry and negotiated the loan, and the museum said first-day ticket sales exceeded £2.5m, its biggest single day of sales on record.

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