A close-up view of the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, thought to date to the 11th century, at the Bayeux Museum, France, in a file photo. [Reuters]
Today we are celebrating the arrival in Britain of the utterly amazing tapestry made by William the Conqueror’s Queen Matilda after the Duke of Normandy invaded and conquered England in 1066. The vivid cartoon strip colors of the tapestry, which has hung in Bayeux Cathedral for a 1,000 years seem as fresh today as a millennium ago.
The French government has agreed that London should have one of the founding pieces of national art restored to be on display in the British Museum.
There is now a much greater exchange of art treasures that belong to other nations. The British Museum has sent back 32 items of Royal Regalia to Ghana after they were brought back as imperial plunder to London in 1896.
London’s prestigious Horniman Museum has restored 72 Benin Bronzes looted in 1897 by British soldiers at the height of British colonial plunder.
