Next, in France, today is the last
chance to view the Bayer Tapestry, which
chronicles the Norman invasion of
England in 1066. The Bayer Museum will
shut for at least 2 years to build a new
display area. Next opportunity to see
the nearly 1,000-year-old artwork will
be when it goes on display at the
British Museum in a year's time. It's
believed to have been created by English
embroiderers, but has never been housed
in Britain. It had sparked criticism in
the French art world for many there
saying that the tapestry is just too
delicate to be transported across the
English Channel. Here's our Paris
correspondent Hugh Scoffield. What this
uh body of art experts and specialists
is saying is that uh President Macarron
has decided on his own on his own to uh
make this gesture of cultural diplomacy
towards the UK promising to to loan the
uh the tapestry overriding the official
reports and concerns of the most of the
people who know about this. They're
they're saying that there there have
been studies done in the last few years
um regarding the state of the tapestry
and the potential for movement and they
have all been pretty unanimous in
recommending that it it move not at all
or if it has to move which it will have
to do because as you said the museum is
is being closed if it has to move u only
a very short distance. Um so that that's
that's the the you know the bulk of
their their um objection that that it's
very very old. It's a thousand years
old. There are we know that it's in a
very very fragile state. Uh and that
it's kind of um President Mron in his
high-handed Jupiterian way uh deciding
to do something which is is eminently
unadvisable.
>> And just briefly Hugh what about the uh
history here? What is the significance
of this uh work?
Well, I mean, it it's it's unique. It's
a unique example of of Norman uh
embroidery. Uh it's a document that
dates to the years following the Norman
conquest, 1066. Uh uh it was ordered
probably by the brother of or the halfb
brotherther of uh William the Conqueror
to chronicle what happened. He was
bishop of Bayer, this man called Udu. uh
it was probably made by um women in
Britain in UK or England as it was then
and then brought back to Bayer because
he was bishop of Bayer and it wasn't
really discovered to the world until the
18th century when when it was suddenly
realized this fantastic artwork was
being paraded every every year in Bayer
Cathedral.