The Bayeux Tapestry has been delivered back to Britain, nearly a millennium after it was first created in the country. The tapestry, which depicts events leading up to the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of 1066, has been in France for more than 900 years.
After being taken from a secret location in northern France, the tapestry was driven with a police escort to a loading bay at the British Museum, ahead of it being put on display this September. "We've just witnessed something rather extraordinary, which is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum but specifically it is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years," said Nick Cullinan, director of the British Museum (via the BBC).
"It probably sounds a bit strange to be that excited at seeing a lorry reverse into a loading bay and a box removed, but when you consider the object within it, how old it was, how close to the events it depicts it was made, by people who lived through those events, it's really profound," said Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of the exhibition where the Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed.
There has been some criticism of the moving of the tapestry, considering its age it's believed there could be damage in the transporting and loan of it. However, it appears the move has succeeded without any damage to the Bayeux Tapestry, and it'll be under heavy watch at the British Museum when it's put on display.