Bayeux Tapestry delivered to British Museum in dead of night

Image source, AFP By Katie Razzall Culture and Media Editor , Reporting from The British Museum Published 3 minutes ago The Bayeux Tapestry has arrived in the UK, for the first time since it is believed to have been created here nearly 1,000 years ago. At 02:50, chaperoned from a secret location in northern France by a police guard, it was driven into a loading bay at the British Museum, which will put it on display in September. The 70-metre long, 11th-Century embroidery depicts in 58 scenes the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 - the moment that changed the country forever. The heavy-looking crate, encased in an aluminium frame, was lowered out of the lorry, in front of a select crowd including the French ambassador to the UK and the director of the British Museum. Nick Cullinan told me: "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. "It feels like a really remarkable thing not just to witness but to be part of, and we're so excited to share it with as many people as possible." A big black crate being removed from a lorry in the dead of night may not sound that exciting but this is a historic moment - and BBC News was also there to witness it. Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, said: "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. "I did well up a little bit when I saw it coming off the lorry so I imagine I'll probably be in floods of tears when I actually see it." French President Emmanuel Macron had earlier posted a photograph of an image of the Bayeux Tapestry which the British Museum had projected on to the white cliffs of Dover. On the image was "merci beaucoup" ("thanks very much"). The nine-month loan is backed by the French government in an agreement finalised between Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last year. The museum in Bayeux, Normandy, where it has been exhibited since 1983 is closed for renovation. At the time of the announcement, the former Chancellor, George Osborne, chair of the British Museum Trustees, said: "Once in a generation there's a British Museum exhibition that eclipses all others. Think in previous ages of Tutankhamun and the Terracotta Warriors. The Bayeux Tapestry will be THE blockbuster show of our generation. I know it will capture the imagination of an entire nation." In return, the museum is loaning treasures including from the Sutton Hoo hoard as well as the Lewis chess pieces, made from walrus ivory in the 12th Century. But in France ever since the announcement, there has been some disquiet that a work of such fragility and histori