The British artist David Hockney says bringing the Bayeux Tapestry to London for an exhibition on the British Museum this autumn is “insanity”, including that the “lovely in addition to traditionally essential” masterpiece could possibly be broken in transit and “shall be put in jeopardy whether it is moved to London”.
Writing in The Impartial (14 January), he questions the British Museum present, saying: “To what finish [is this taking place]? The self-importance of a museum which needs to boast of the variety of guests. Is it actually price it? I feel not.”
The Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the 1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings, shall be displayed within the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery of the British Museum from September till July 2027 whereas its present house, the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy, undergoes renovations.
Hockney first visited the tapestry in 1967 and has seen it greater than 20 instances prior to now three years alone. He provides: “Trendy museum observe is supposed to prioritise preservation over entry. Whereas shifting the Bayeux Tapestry to the UK might need self-importance and symbolic instructional worth, the bodily and environmental dangers are substantial.”
He claims that the traditional embroidery, created within the 1070s, could possibly be broken throughout transportation. “Transferring the Bayeux Tapestry throughout the [English] Channel for an exhibition would contain vital danger. I’ve seemed into this. The linen backing is weakened by age, and the wool embroidery threads are susceptible to emphasize. Rolling, unrolling, or hanging it in a brand new means may cause tearing, sew loss and distortion of the material.”
Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the British Museum, stated in response to Hockney’s feedback: “Whereas we perceive these issues, the museum has a world-leading conservation and collections group who’re consultants at dealing with and caring for the sort of materials. We ship and obtain 1000’s of loans annually, together with historical frescoes and textiles that are older than the Bayeux tapestry, and their situation and security is all the time of paramount significance.”
The UK Treasury is because of insure the tapestry for an estimated £800m, masking injury or loss throughout its switch from Normandy and likewise whereas it’s on show on the British Museum.
In change for the tapestry mortgage, among the British Museum’s treasures—together with the Lewis chessmen, the Sutton Hoo helmet, the Mould gold cape and the Dunaverney flesh hook—will journey to Normandy. The historic mortgage settlement was introduced in July by the French president Emmanuel Macron and the British prime minister Keir Starmer on the British Museum.
Hockney, in the meantime, is because of open an exhibition on the Serpentine Galleries in London this spring which options A Yr in Normandy (2020-21), a 90-metre-long frieze impressed by the Bayeux Tapestry.
