Bayeux Tapestry 'will never be hung up again', British Museum curator admits in bombshell revelation

Curator Lloyd de Beer has revealed that the Bayeux Tapestry will from now on be displayed only flat or at an angle, telling a Cheltenham Literary Festival audience that anyone who saw it hanging in Normandy will not see it that way again in their lifetimes. The nearly 70-metre, thousand-year-old embroidery is shown flat in a display case at the British Museum for its London exhibition, after French conservation rules placed strict limits on light exposure. De Beer said specialists had long regarded vertical hanging as "not appropriate" for the work. French historians are developing a new angular case for when it is eventually returned.

The tapestry is on loan to the British Museum until July, its first time leaving France since it was made nearly a thousand years ago.

Belarus-born billionaire Igor Tulchinsky has committed £5 million to fund the exhibition, calling it the most eagerly awaited cultural event to rival the Tutankhamun show of the 1970s.

On its return to Bayeux, it will be housed in the new angular case — bringing a permanent end to the iconic upright display that visitors had known for decades.