French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a growing backlash over plans to loan the Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom, with a petition against the move surpassing 60,000 signatures. Experts warn that the nearly 1,000-year-old, 70-metre-long embroidery is too fragile to be transported without risking irreparable damage.
Macron announced in July that the tapestry, which depicts William the Conqueror's victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, would be displayed at the British Museum for nine months from September 2026. The loan is intended as a gesture of cross-Channel reconciliation, particularly after Brexit, and has been supported by King Charles III.
However, conservators and curators who have worked on the tapestry have expressed deep concern. One conservator told the petition organiser, Didier Rykner of La Tribune de l'Art, that the plan is 'the opposite of all we had prepared for'. The tapestry, already weakened by age and its display method, is due to be moved over 500 kilometres in a fragile state, with its stabilising lining removed and before restoration.
Rykner accused Macron of ignoring near-unanimous expert advice for a grand political gesture. 'It’s not complicated,' he said. 'Here is an extraordinary work of art ... which expert opinion agrees, overwhelmingly, cannot travel.' The petition has gathered nearly 62,000 signatures in a month.
French officials say the loan will be reciprocated by UK museums lending artefacts such as those from Sutton Hoo and the Lewis Chessmen. But critics argue that the risks to the tapestry, which has been housed in a purpose-built museum in Bayeux since 1983, are too great. Thalia Bajon Bouzid, a conservator who has spoken publicly, warned that any damage would be irreversible: 'Tears would not be repaired, for reasons of authenticity.'
