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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

A new entente? Bayeux tapestry’s UK arrival ‘closes loop’ on Brexit tensions

Lisa Nandy smiles while examining Bayeux tapestry on a workbench at the museum
Lisa Nandy said the tapestry’s arrival felt like closing a needlessly antagonistic chapter between the UK and France. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

In the decade after Brexit, the relationship between Britain and France has been defined by rows over fishing rights, Channel crossings and trade. Boris Johnson even mocked Emmanuel Macron, telling his French counterpart to “donnez-moi un break”.

This week, that fractious chapter gave way to one of the most significant acts of cultural diplomacy between the two countries in decades. Almost 1,000 years after it was created, the Bayeux tapestry arrived at the British Museum, transported from France under cover of darkness, the culmination of years of painstaking negotiations between London and Paris.

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