Nick Cullinan, the director of the British Museum, told me: “We’ve just witnessed something rather extraordinary, which is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum but specifically it is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years.
“It feels like a really remarkable thing not just to witness but to be part of, and we’re so excited to share it with as many people as possible.”
A big black crate being removed from a lorry in the dead of night may not sound that exciting but this is a historic moment.
Millie Horton-Insch, project curator of British Museum Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, said: “It probably sounds a bit strange to be that excited at seeing a lorry reverse into a loading bay and a box removed, but when you consider the object within it, how old it was, how close to the events it depicts it was made, by people who lived through those events, it’s really profound.
“I did well up a little bit when I saw it coming off the lorry so I imagine I’ll probably be in floods of tears when I actually see it.”
