Coventry mounts bold bid to host Bayeux Tapestry for City of Culture celebrations
Coventry is set to launch a bold bid to bring the Bayeux Tapestry to the city to kickstart its City of Culture celebrations.
French President Emmanuel Macron has given the all clear for the 900-year-old artwork, depicting the Battle of Hastings, to be loaned to the UK.
The tapestry has been in France since the 11th Century but is not expected to leave before 2020 to allow for crucial restoration work.
The British Museum is currently favourite to host the tapestry with Canterbury, Hastings, York and Leicester all in the running – but now David Burbidge, the chairman of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, is throwing the city’s hat firmly into the ring.
He said: “With Coventry being UK City of Culture in 2021 this would be perfectly timed to come to the city either in 2021 or as part of our legacy.
“Perhaps, before winning the title, we wouldn’t have had the confidence to push ourselves forward to host such a historic piece of work but now believe we would be exactly the right place to host it.
“Coventry is already home to some wonderful tapestry, not least Christ in Glory – by Graham Sutherland – which hangs in Coventry Cathedral and has major French influences.”
The tapestry took two years to make – by 12 weavers in central France – and is in one piece that is 23 metres high and 12 metres wide.
“There is also the stunning Coventry Tapestry, which dates from around 1500 and which still hangs today at St Mary’s Guildhall was made by Flemish weavers,” he added.
“The Coventry Tapestry is widely recognised as one of the rarest and most important examples of this art in the country.
“Its rarity lies not just in its age and remarkable state of preservation, but also in the fact that, incredibly, it remains hanging on the very wall for which it was created more than five hundred years ago.”
At more than nine metres wide and three metres high, the artwork dominates the north wall of the Great Hall, and is testament to the skills of its Flemish weavers, and the wealth of the city of Coventry at the end of the 15th Century.
“If we could bring the world famous Bayeux Tapestry here, it would be a great attraction during 2021 for visitors from around the country – and indeed around the world,” he added.
