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Top secret operation that returned Bayeux Tapestry to UK for first time in 1,000 years in the middle of the night

The 960-year-old tapestry was secretly loaded onto a lorry and transported for 11 hours from France to London with police and special technology to protect the priceless piece of history

[Workers unloading the crate holding the Bayeux Tapestry]

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Workers unloading the crate holding the Bayeux Tapestry outside the British Museum(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Nearly 1,000 years of history delicately arrived in the UK in the dead of night, in a massive operation involving British and French police.

The Bayeux Tapestry set off on an 11-hour journey after leaving northern France at 6:15pm, on Thursday, and onto a shuttle train through the Channel tunnel. The priceless work was met by the Metropolitan Police Service and Kent Police before it arrived in London at around 3am, on Friday, to bring the carefully planned and secret operation to a successful end.

The priceless artefact had been folded like an accordion and placed into a climate controlled case within a shock-absorbing cradle - providing the 70-metre-long tapestry will all the added protection for the road.

[Worker pushes specially designed crate carrying the Bayeux Tapestry]

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Worker pushes specially designed crate carrying the Bayeux Tapestry into the British Museum(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Despite being called a tapestry, the nearly 960-year-old piece of art and history is linen with embroidered images of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The full operation to ensure the Bayeux Tapestry is safe has not fully ended as it will spend days acclimatising before being removed from the protective gear. British Museum staff will also carry out condition checks over the coming weeks.

[The Bayeux Tapestry]

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The Bayeux Tapestry(Image: AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

The artefact will then be unfolded and prepared for the exhibition, which has been described as "once-in-a-generation" by the museum.

Around 7.5 million people are expected to see the tapestry in London when it goes on show from September to July 2027. Tickets for the exhibition went live last week, with people waiting up to nine hours in online queues, and it generated over 2.4 million in sales in the first 24 hours.

[Lorry reversing into the British Museum]

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The yellow lorry that held the tapestry for 11 hours reversing into the British Museum(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

French president Emmanuel Macron praised the loan and said it showed what France and the UK "can achieve when they join forces".

Macron, writing in The Times, hailed the moment as a "tangible expression of long-standing friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together".

[Line of workers and volunteers holding the Bayeux Tapestry]

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Workers and volunteers as they prepared to pack the Bayeux Tapestry in the crate, in France(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It has been on display at the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Bayeux, in Normandy, since 1983 and will return there when the museum reopens after renovation.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called the exhibition a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity", saying: "Make no mistake this is an historic moment and a significant act of friendship as we welcome this iconic historical tapestry back to Britain for the first time in almost 1,000 years.

[The director of the British Museum and France's ambassador to the UK]

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Nicholas Cullinan (R), director of the British Museum, with France's ambassador to the UK, Hlne Trheux-Duchne (L)(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

"This exhibition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn about this pivotal period in our national story and our shared heritage and friendship with France, which endures to the present day. I'm delighted to welcome this tapestry back onto British shores."

Director of the British Museum Dr Nicholas Cullinan said: "This has been a monumental effort from colleagues at the British Museum and our partners in the UK and France. Watching the Tapestry arrive at the Museum is a moment I will never forget and I look forward to seeing the exhibition take shape over the coming weeks and welcoming the first visitors through our doors this September."

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