LONDON (AP) — After almost 1,000 years, the Bayeux Tapestry is back on English soil.In scenes like a heist movie in reverse, the priceless Medieval artwork was spirited into the British Museum on Friday in the dead of night, after a high-tech, tight-security operation where any slip-up could have spelled disaster.On loan from its home in France, the tapestry will go on display at the London museum from Sept. 10 until July 2027. It’s a public homecoming for a vivid visual record of the 1066 Norman invasion, the last successful conquest of England.The tapestry’s arrival in London has been widely anticipated, but due to security concerns all details of when and how it would arrive have been kept under wraps.“It feels extraordinary that after so much work and planning and care and thought that it’s actually happening,” British Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan said as he awaited the arrival after a secrecy-shrouded journey.“It’s the first time in 1,000 years that such an important piece of British — French too — history is going to be on these shores,” he said. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
The 70-meter (230-foot) tapestry was folded accordion-style in a climate-controlled case that was placed inside a shock-absorbing cradle. That went into a truck that crossed from France on a vehicle shuttle train through the Channel Tunnel.
