The Bayeux Tapestry was removed from its museum in northern France for the first time since 1983 ahead of the 11th-century artwork’s loan to the United Kingdom, French sources told AFP on Friday.

The 68-metre-long (224-foot-long) tapestry, which depicts the Norman conquest of England in 1066, was taken from its museum on Thursday in the French town of Bayeux in Normandy and placed in a secret storage location, the sources said.

Although the French state initially announced a delay to the transfer as a result of nationwide strikes and protests against French President Emmanuel Macron, the tapestry’s removal went ahead under a cloud of secrecy.

France’s loan of the artefact, which was added to UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” register in 2007, has sparked an outcry from heritage experts con

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