The Bayeux Tapestry’s Historic English Homecoming — Especially for the All-Conquering Elite

On 2 September, London’s British Museum held its opening night reception for its new exhibition. Even by the standards of high-profile launches, this was something exceptional, boasting VIPs who included King Charles, Britain’s relatively new Prime Minister Andy Burnham and the French President Emmanuel Macron. The trio were not, however, lured purely by the stardust offered by the British Museum’s oleaginous Chairman, Britain’s former Chancellor George Osborne, but by the chance to view the Bayeux Tapestry, which is being displayed in Britain for the first time since it left the country after its creation in the late 11th century.The launch event was, as anticipated, an opportunity for important people to say all the right things. Mr. Osborne kicked off with a speech in which he thanked three separate Prime Ministers — Theresa May, Keir Starmer and now Mr. Burnham — for their efforts in securing the loan of the fragile tapestry, and joked that “1066 wasn’t the only time we had a rapid succession of leaders.” The Prime Minister saw another opportunity for merriment and self-promotion and remarked that the tapestry “showed a new leader emerging from a northern territory and travelling to the south of England.” This nod to his Manchester roots won another round of polite, if rather mirthless, laughter.It was left to Monsieur Macron and King Charles to offer a greater sense of gravity. The president of France observed, of the delicate negotiations to host the exhibition, “since the first British request dates back to 1931, I choose to regard eight years as something of a speed record.” He rightly hailed the tapestry — one of the world’s best-known decorative narrative artefacts that depicts the Norman Conquest, Battle of Hastings and death of King Harold in its 70-metre span, and which has never left France before — as “a masterpiece.”Then the monarch, always a class act when it comes to mixing erudition with soft power, noted his direct descent from King William, saying the Bayeux Tapestry “tells the story of the beginning of what I like to think of as the French side of my family’s history in these islands,” and made a wider point about how this particular entente cordiale has come to pass. Talking of the “”two great nations, which share such fundamental values,” he said: “The tapestry’s story is one of ambition and uncertainty, of oaths and journeys, of ships, councils, kings, comets and consequences. Yet it is not merely an English story, nor only a Norman one. Indeed, from the moment of its creation, it may have brought together our two people.”Prime Minister Andy Burnham speaking at an event for the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition at the British Museum at London on September 2, 2026. Thomas Krych – WPA Pool/Getty ImagesAll of this was highly commendable, and bodes well for what is the most anticipated exhibition in the British Museum’s history, even outstripping the legendary “The Treasures of Tutankhamun” display from 1972, which, with nearly 1.7 million visitors in the nine months that it was held, remains the most popular since the museum opened in 1753. Usually, I would be looking forward to reviewing it for The New York Sun in due course, and informing readers precisely why the hype is justified. Unfortunately, I will not be able to do so. A request to the museum’s press department was met with the peremptory, almost gloating response that, “Unfortunately our press view is at capacity so we won’t be able to accommodate a space at this time. Due to very high demand, we also won’t be offering press tickets during the exhibition run,” before signing off with the passive-aggressive dismissal, “We appreciate your interest.”Under normal circumstances, I would shrug, curse the rude publicist and move onto my next assignment. Yet I am not the only person to have been denied access to the now sold-out exhibition. Laura Cumming, award-winning art critic of The Observer, tweeted incredulously that “I could not get access to @britishmuseum despite MANY REQUESTS to write a feature for my paper as it was a condition of the deal with the French Govt that nobody could see it until officially open.” This was swiftly proved to be untrue. Katie Razzall, the BBC’s Culture Editor, for instance, was granted access for a “sneak peek,” and, more egregiously, it was revealed that none other than Palantir owner Peter Thiel was invited to a private view of the tapestry.The Bayeux Tapestry. Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesThe presence of Mr. Thiel, especially, seemed of a piece with Mr. Osborne’s apparent ongoing desire to turn the British Museum into the English equivalent of the Met, a place associated with glitz and glamor. The ex-politician launched a supposed rival event, the British Museum Ball, last year, and in 2025, it was known as the ‘Pink Ball’ thanks to its all-pink theme. (No disgraced fashion designers welcome here.) The event may have raised £2.5 million for the museum but the relatively lax security, compared to the ring of steel at the Met, enabled a climate activist to gain entry while working as a waitress and disrupt Mr. Osborne’s keynote speech by highlighting the museum’s sponsorship detail with British Petroleum. Mr. Osborne dealt with the interruption suavely — “it’s great to live in a democracy,” he observed as the protester was escorted away by security — but you imagine that Anna Wintour would have had the protester more severely dealt with or, at the very least, removed her trademark dark glasses and turned her to stone with a basilisk stare.George Osborne is, like his disgraced friend Peter Mandelson, possessed of that very British ability to be several things at once: Well-connected patron of the arts, successful podcaster, along with his erstwhile opposite number Ed Balls, on “Political Currency,” which has just recorded an episode from the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, beneficiary both of hereditary wealth via his father’s wallpaper business and his own riches obtained from being a partner at Robey Warshaw, and savvy freelance diplomat.It is probably only under a George Osborne chairmanship that the British Museum would have successfully brokered the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry, and equally only his stewardship that press would have been turned away in favor of the likes of Peter Thiel. Mr. Osborne has referred to the event as “blockbuster show of our generation A particular complication comes with the way that the fragile and delicate tapestry can only be displayed for a certain amount of time each day — the so-called “lux hours” — that may, theoretically, have limited press exposure, but when it comes to the rich and famous, all such considerations are forgotten.And while Mr. Osborne is remembered in some quarters for his editorship of the London Evening Standard,back when he had a greater appreciation for journalists, there was a curious incident in 2004, before he became Shadow Chancellor, when he tabled a written parliamentary question as a backbench MP, asking the-then Chancellor Gordon Brown how many times his department had placed advertising in, of all places, the glossy celebrity magazine Hello!It was revealed that the Inland Revenue had advertised no fewer than nine times “because analysis of its readership indicated an appropriate percentage of people entitled to claim Tax Credits,” which seemed like an incongruous waste of taxpayers’ money. The story was not widely reported at the time, but in its combination of mischief-making, genuine curiosity and — let us be honest —implicit condescension, it was a quintessentially George Osborne provocation.George Osborne, Chairman of the British Museum, at a viewing of the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition at the British Museum on September 2, 2026 in London, England. Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty ImagesJust over two decades later, his Bayeux coup at the British Museum comes after he became notorious while Chancellor for the cuts he made to libraries under the guise of austerity, which disproportionately once again affected the poor and those most in need of access to free books as well as the shelter offered by the institutions. It was estimated in 2019 that nearly 800 UK libraries had closed since 2010, when Mr. Osborne became Chancellor under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, close to a fifth of the total number of libraries.But this, one imagines, matters rather less to the charming and sophisticated George Osborne than hob-nobbing with the elites. The Bayeux Tapestry event — an entrance ticket costs between $33 and $43 — will define his chairmanship in history and will undoubtedly be a huge success. It is still possible to wish that the whole affair had been done with rather less smarm.

The Bayeux Tapestry’s Historic English Homecoming — Especially for the All-Conquering Elite

The Bayeux Tapestry’s Historic English Homecoming — Especially for the All-Conquering Elite

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