France's Bayeux Tapestry faces first restoration in 150 years
https://artdaily.com/news/133973/France-s-Bayeux-Tapestry-faces-first-restoration-in-150-years#.YFLq_K9KjcuBAYEUX (AFP).- It has stood for over nine centuries as the most celebrated record of the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, its famous images cemented into the mind of every British school child.
But for all its enduring power, the 70-metre (230 feet) long Bayeux Tapestry -- held at a museum in the northern French town of the same name -- is a fragile object suffering from wear-and-tear, including thousands of holes.
It will now be restored for the first since 1870, two years after an agreement between Paris and London for the tapestry to be loaned to Britain.
"The tapestry is an old lady who is nearly 1,000 years old, a very, very fine linen canvas embroidered with wool which now shows multiple signs of damage," Antoine Verney, the chief curator of the museum, told AFP.
"Any handling of the work in its current state can lead to new alterations. This is the main reason for this intervention."
