Enlarge image
Bayeux tapestry: the conquest of England by the Normans at 70 meters
Photo:
Loic Venance / dpa
The world-famous Bayeux tapestry is more fragile than previously thought, according to a current state analysis.
Experts have found 24,204 stains, 16,445 creases, 30 tears and 9646 gaps in embroidery and linen on the tapestry from the 11th century.
Above all, the first meters of the almost 70-meter-long work of art are more fragile.
The tapestry is not transportable until the end of its restoration, which should begin in 2024, said Antoine Verney, chief curator of the museum association of the city of Bayeux in Normandy.
French President Emmanuel Macron is unlikely to be able to keep his promise to loan the tapestry to England in 2022.
Verney also doubts whether the tapestry can be moved after the restoration.
As he told the specialist journal »Connaissance des Arts«, 50 people were needed just for the transport for the condition analysis.
Macron had promised the loan to Great Britain in 2018 at a meeting with then Prime Minister Theresa May.
The tapestry depicting the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066 is considered one of the most remarkable pictorial monuments of the High Middle Ages.
Many historians believe that it was embroidered in England.
The carpet only left the city of Bayeux twice.
Once Napoleon had him brought to Paris.
The second time he traveled to get him to safety from the German occupiers.
sak / dpa
