In September 2026, a 70-meter-long piece of embroidered cloth is scheduled to cross the English Channel. For the first time in over 900 years, it will be moved from France to the UK to be exhibited at the British Museum, insured by British taxpayers for a staggering 800 million pounds. This artifact is the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century visual masterpiece that details the events leading up to the 1066 Norman Conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings. It is the absolute definition of a survivor, having narrowly escaped being used as a waterproof military wagon tarp during the French Revolution, being coveted as a piece of psychological warfare by Napoleon, and surviving a desperate 11th-hour tug-of-war between the French Resistance and the Nazi SS in the final days of World War II.

The profound irony of the Bayeux Tapestry is that whi ...