To ensure its safety and without damage, the folding stand on which the tapestry has been stored since it was removed from the Bayeux exhibition last year was placed in a temperature and humidity controlled box. This box was then placed in an outer cage in which metal springs acted as shock absorbers, protecting it from road imperfections.
The work crossed the English Channel via the Eurotunnel and then reached central London in the dead of night.
Cullinan told me: “If someone had said to the other side, especially the French side as creditors, ‘I think this is too risky’, it wouldn’t have happened now. This is the reality. The museum would never do anything that would jeopardize the objects in its care.”
The “goal” is no damage, he added. “This is something that every effort has been made and we feel very confident about it. And it should also be said that much more fragile things are constantly traveling. We borrow more fragile things.”
Two practice trips were previously made with the textile replica to test the route and box. The goal was to measure vibration and reduce any major shocks or shocks.
Peter Ricketts, Britain’s special envoy for the release of the tapestry, said “everything possible has been done” to avoid damage.
“No one would want to bring the tapestry to the UK if they thought there was any damage or danger to this unusual object. I’m not worried, I’m relieved. All these carefully thought-out transportation measures seem to be working very well.”
He described the loan as “two old nations coming together to look at their shared history, and that’s very special.”
The Bayeux Tapestry is not really a tapestry at all: it is a linen cloth embroidered with colored wool yarn depicting the battle between William, Duke of Normandy, then conqueror of England, and Harold II, King of England.
Embroidery of enormous significance – 58 scenes, 626 characters (but only six women), 202 horses – ships, swords and arrows (including one striking a soldier, presumably Harold II – although there are questions as to whether this was added later).
Horton-Insch said it was a “miracle” that the artwork had survived nearly 1,000 years. “Moths, mice, damp, mold, fire and more” could destroy it.
“It’s just extraordinary survival.”
“It tells the story of one of the most important moments in English history, British history, in the most incredibly powerful way that simply cannot be conveyed in written sources.”
The Bayeux Tapestry is an epic depiction of the end of Anglo-Saxon England.
The Norman Conquest changed everything, completely transforming the country. English lands were transferred to the Norman nobility. The Normans built hundreds of castles that gave them control and demonstrated royal power.
The English earls were replaced by Normans, as were the senior members of the church.
And thousands of French words that we still use today have entered the English language – from law, parliament and justice to lamb, beef and pork.
The tapestry provides an insight into the medieval period in Normandy and England like no other. It provides information on civil and military architecture, armor and seafaring in the Viking tradition, as well as valuable details of everyday life.
Until 1066, the country’s cultural and political ties were with Scandinavia and the North Sea. After the Norman Conquest it became part of the Norman kingdom stretching across the English Channel. It is sometimes said that this was the beginning of England’s involvement in the politics of continental Europe.
The excitement surrounding the exhibition led to the British Museum selling a record 100,000 tickets on its first day on sale. The work will be displayed in the apartment – a mandatory condition of the loan. The mezzanine will allow visitors to view the entire work right at the gallery entrance – for the first time in history.
But before that there will be weeks of painstaking study of the work.