The Bayeux Tapestry blockbuster at the British Museum
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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950 years after it was made in England, the Bayer Tapestry is for the first time returning to the UK for a blockbuster exhibition at the British Museum. Professor Michael Lewis is the curator of that exhibition and in conversation with David Musgrove for this episode of the History Extra podcast, he explains what you can expect if you do go down to the British Museum and how he hopes it'll become a generational event that people will talk about for decades to come.
I am joined by Professor Michael Lewis, who is the curator of the Bayer Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum, the big blockbuster exhibition in September 2026, the once-in-a-millennium moment when the tapestry is coming from France to England. And I do have a bit of skin in the game here. I ought to be clear that Michael and I have co-written a book, The Story of the Bear Tapestry. So our dynamic is slightly different to our normal interviews in that I know the man and we've written a book together. But what we're going to talk about today is the story... of the exhibition, the story of the loan and what you will see if you go to the exhibition. But don't worry, if you haven't got a ticket, you're also going to be able to learn a lot about how the tapestry is going to be presented and what it's all about from this conversation.
So Michael, how are you? Good, thank you. Okay, good to see you. Let's kick off. What's your involvement in the loan story? When did you first get involved in the Bear Tapestry?
Oh my gosh, there's a bit of a backstory here. I'll try and keep it as quick as possible. So in 2013, I was asked to join the Bayer Tapestry Scientific Committee, which was advising Bayer Museum on how the tapestry was going to be displayed and reinterpreted in its new museum. and it came clear quite soon really that the museum would have to close for them to do their ambitious plans for the museum which involved putting the tapestry in a single straight line and it occurred to me kind of obviously really that this would be an opportunity if the tapestry is coming off display and going to be put in storage for several years for it to come to the uk and of course i kind of mentioned that to my colleagues mostly french colleagues
What is the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition and why is it a once‑in‑a‑millennium event?
And they basically said to me, Michael, this is a lovely idea, but I don't really see how this is going to happen because the tapestry is obviously, as you know, kind of very fragile, very delicate. But it's a nice idea. But over time, it sort of got a bit of traction, essentially because I was starting to talk to all sorts of different people about the kind of possibility of this. I kind of didn't let it rest in a way. And there was conversations I was having with colleagues at the DCMS in advance of this summit. It's called the Sandhurst Summit in 2018 between Macron and May. And different departments within government kind of normally offer things towards that summit. And there had been the idea that this loan request could be part of that.
And I was kind of knowing things from both sides because my colleagues in Bayer Museum were telling me to say, look, we've been asked about this and whether it would be possible and et cetera, et cetera. And obviously they'd known I'd be very interested in this for a long time. So it sort of became essentially part of the agreement that if the tapestry was safe to travel, then it would be loaned to the UK. And of course, President Macron famously announced that just before the summit and it splashed off over the... newspapers, that the bear tapestry was coming to the UK, but it wasn't quite a done deal. And in fact, I think from my perspective, it was a little bit frustrating that on the British side, there wasn't a real clear plan about how that would sort of happen.
Still, I'd kind of badgered about it, you know, knowing this was an agreement in principle.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:33
2
What is the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition and why is it a once‑in‑a‑millennium event?
2:33–5:33
3
How did the loan of the tapestry from France to the UK come about?
5:33–11:16
4
What does the curator’s role involve in planning this blockbuster show?
11:16–35:41
5
How is the exhibition space designed to showcase a 70‑metre long tapestry?
35:41–42:04