Test runs and a shock-absorbing cage: how Bayeux tapestry was moved to UK

Final preparations take place in Bayeux this week before transporting the tapestry in its specially constructed container. Photograph: Isabelle Harsin/Ministry of Culture/Sipa Press/Reuters View image in fullscreen Final preparations take place in Bayeux this week before transporting the tapestry in its specially constructed container. Photograph: Isabelle Harsin/Ministry of Culture/Sipa Press/Reuters Test runs and a shock-absorbing cage: how Bayeux tapestry was moved to UK Medieval artwork safely delivered to British Museum before display from September in carefully controlled conditions Bayeux tapestry crosses Channel in dead of night for historic exhibition The Bayeux tapestry has survived myriad perils, from cathedral fires to its potential destruction for use as wagon covers. Now, with the embroidery about to be displayed in a blockbuster London exhibition , experts must contend with a host of more insidious dangers. The arrival of the tapestry at the British Museum in the small hours of Friday morning was a historic moment – albeit less dramatic than the landing of William the Conqueror it portrays. Unloaded from a large yellow lorry to a hushed audience of staff and diplomats, the 70-metre-long (230ft) embroidery was back in its country of origin for the first time in almost 1,000 years. But getting it to the UK, putting it on show, and understanding its secrets have required some very modern science. View image in fullscreen Preparations in Bayeux this week for the transfer of the tapestry. Photograph: Isabelle Harsin/Ministry of Culture/Sipa Press/Reuters To be transported, the work first had to be removed from display at its home at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in France , then mounted on a folding screen called a paravent, which was then padded. Bayeux tapestry crosses Channel in dead of night for historic UK exhibition Read more “The tapestry is essentially kind of folded back on itself in a concertina-type way,” said Prof Michael Lewis, the curator of the Bayeux tapestry exhibition at the British Museum. The transportation system involved complex engineering, with temperature and humidity carefully controlled. This was achieved using an inner crate built around the paravent, with a second outer crate, composed of wire-rope isolators to tackle shocks and vibrations, and an aluminium frame. To ensure the crates and lorry could transport the fragile work safely, experts carried out two dry runs earlier this year. “We had two previous tests: one that just came over the Channel with another paravent which had a kind of replica Tapestry inside … and then one that did the whole trip to the British Museum ,” Lewis said. “And the purpose of that was to monitor the kind of vibration levels on the tapestry.” View image in fullscreen The container is unloaded at the British Museum in the early hours of Friday. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images But it is not only getting the embroidery to the UK that has required technical skills; displ