Bayeux Tapestry back on English soil

After almost 1,000 years, the priceless medieval artwork known as the Bayeux Tapestry is back on English soil.

In scenes like a heist movie in reverse, the 70-metre long tapestry was spirited into the British Museum on Friday in the dead of night,after a high-tech, tight-security operation.

Jill Lawless from the Associated Press says, "the tapestry is being loaned to the British Museum by the French

in an act of cultural diplomacy to strengthen and celebrate the ties between the two countries."

"Bringing it to England has involved the combination of technology, secrecy, and extreme care."

"The tapestry is 230 feet long, and to get it here, it has been folded accordion-style, put in a climate-controlled case, nestled within

a shock-proof container to stop it getting rattled, put on a truck, driven to the Channel Tunnel, put on a train through the Channel Tunnel and then driven through Southeast England into the heart of London, where in the middle of the night, observed by very few people and with police escort, it is going to arrive at the British Museum."

The priceless cargo will spend several days acclimatising before it is unpacked and unfolded for an exhibition that the museum expects to be very popular. Some 100,000 tickets were sold in their first day on sale this month.

Stitched in wool thread on linen fabric, the artwork depicts the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold's Anglo-Saxon army.

The invasion ended Saxon rule and made William the Conquerorthe first Norman king of England.