This foolish loan deal risks unstitching years of history

Some things are too precious to take a risk with. Moving the Bayeux Tapestry is one of them. It is nearly a thousand years old, the most complete narrative work of art in Europe, and remember it is very long, more than 70 metres in length. It is fragile, which makes it madness to think of moving it. It is too big a risk.

- DAVID HOCKNEY

I first saw the tapestry in 1967 and have seen it more than 20 times in the last three years. And it is beautiful as well as historically important. Backed on linen, the colours and the marvellous needlework make it not just vulnerable, but it will be put in jeopardy if it is moved to London, as the British Museum plans an exhibition there. I think it should not be uprooted from where it has been kept safe for so many centuries, and I will explain why. I have been a risk-taker in most things I have done, but I never see any advantage in being reckless.

First, a history lesson. It is fundamental to our island story. The tapestry was created in the 1070s after the Norman Conquest and was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who was the half-brother of William the Conqueror. Made in Canterbury, it is a display of events leading up to and including the Battle of Hastings. It illustrated King Edward the Confessor and William of Normandy's claim to the English throne and the Norman invasion, and Harold's death. The 58 narrative scenes have been observed in Bayeux for nearly a millennium, and it has survived political upheaval and wars, and now faces an unnecessary conservation ordeal with the British Museum.