Dispute over damage to the Bayeux Tapestry after its move to the British Museum
While the French deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy calls the damage to the Bayeux Tapestry a scandal, Paris Match offers a denial of the reports of harm to the exhibit:
No, the tapestry was not seriously damaged in London.
When the tapestry was taken to London in July, the French Ministry of Culture stated that the object showed no visible changes. At the beginning of September the Minister of Culture, Catherine Pégard, reported that after the move the experts had recorded the breakage of two threads over 70 metres. By her account, this is insignificant, and one may say that the tapestry remains in the same condition in which it left Bayeux. Later, a formulation appeared in the British Museum's report to the effect that small tears in the linen warp in two places could have appeared at any time after the control survey of September 2025.
The discussion of the damage began afresh after Minister Pégard said that, once returned, the tapestry would no longer be hung vertically but displayed on an inclined surface. This, by her account, had been under discussion for about ten years.
In essence, there is no contradiction. Two broken threads and two millimetre-long tears are indeed acknowledged damage; it is merely that the restorers regard this as an insignificant amount. And yes, after its return the tapestry will not be displayed as before, in order to reduce the strain on the fabric, but this is attributed to long-standing discussions rather than to new damage. On the other hand, it would be strange to suppose that a textile nearly a thousand years old would suffer no harm at all in being carried to a new place.
But since the transfer of the tapestry to the British Museum was Macron's personal decision, it would be dull to pretend that nothing has happened; all right-thinking people are simply obliged, at every opportunity, to criticise the wilfulness of officials. Therefore any agitation, backed by a campaign against moving the monument with some 70 thousand signatures, will in the end count towards a more careful attitude to cultural heritage. Concern for the safety of national monuments is never superfluous.
Whatever the truth about the thousand-year-old threads, it suits the British Museum to deny any substantial damage, and both governments, and the president's office. The truth will be known only to the curators and the museum mice.
