British Museum bans photos at Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

The British Museum has prohibited visitors to the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition from taking photographs, so that the circulation of the public coming to discover this medieval treasure is more fluid, the London museum said on Monday.

This exhibition, which opened on September 10, is generating exceptional enthusiasm. It is sold out until December 31 but new tickets must go on sale on October 21.

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Visitors have around forty minutes to admire the embroidery, almost 70 meters long, which recounts the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in the 11th century.

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Slowed traffic

“Interest in the Tapestry is considerable and our priority is to ensure that all visitors have the best possible experience,” a British Museum spokesperson said in a statement.

“We have taken the decision to prohibit photographs while visitors move along the Tapestry,” the museum added without specifying when this ban came into force.

Photographs were initially permitted but the flow of visitors was slowed by those stopping to take photos.

Also read “A communications operation”: when Napoleon used the Bayeux tapestry to worry the English

French President Emmanuel Macron announced in July 2025 the loan of this jewel, usually exhibited in Bayeux, in Normandy, in the northwest of France. Up to a million people are expected for this exhibition which is due to end on July 11, 2027. The Tapestry will then return to Bayeux.