'An epic work of art' The Bayeux tapestry's depiction of the horror of war is still gripping

"Angli et Franci" - these Latin words embroidered on the Bayeux tapestry may be the first time those cartoon rivals, the English and French, are named together.

- Jonathan Jones

But in one of the shifts from triumph to horror that make this epic work of art still gripping almost a millennium after it was made, the full sentence reads: "Here at the same time the English and French [or Angles and Franks] fell in battle."

Below the black lettering, horses and riders in chainmail are thrown about and upside down in a bloody tangle. In the lower margin lie corpses and a severed head.

Now, in an unprecedented piece of cultural diplomacy between the Franci and Angli, this 70-metre Romanesque wonder, preserved for centuries in Bayeux in Normandy, is to go on show at the British Museum. Sutton Hoo treasures and Lewis chessmen will go to France.

When it opens in September next year this will surely be one of the British Museum's most popular shows ever - for every British school child learns this is not just a work of art, but a document of our history and who we are.