No Piece of Art Has Been Relocated Quite Like This One

"I am extremely serene," says France's head of heritage and architecture about what lies ahead for the Bayeux Tapestry. The nearly 1,000-year-old embroidery depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England will leave its Normandy home next month for a nine-month stay at the British Museum—only the third time it has ever left Bayeux—despite warnings from some French art experts that it's too delicate to withstand the 350-mile journey. Indeed, AFP notes it has suffered 24,000 stains, 9,000 holes, and 30 tears.

To counter those fears, the BBC reports that France's Culture Ministry ran two full-scale rehearsal trips with replicas and designed a double-crate system: The 230-foot-long work will rest on a folding stand inside a climate-controlled aluminum case, itself suspended on springs within an outer shell. Tests suggest 96% of vibrations are absorbed.

As French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard puts it, "Never in the history of transporting works of art have so many tests, so many protocols, so many risk checks been carried out for a single relocation." Once it arrives, it will be displayed flat rather than vertically. The exact transport date is being kept under wraps, but it will occur in July, with the exhibition set to run from September through July 2027.