The Bayeux Tapestry

British Museum · London

Seventy metres of eleventh-century wool embroidery, back in England for the first time since it was made — a loan negotiated between governments rather than between curators, which is a fair measure of what it took. The seminal and founding document for those who collect or covet objects made to record power. One practical caveat: tickets to 31 December have gone, and the next release, covering January to March, opens on 21 October.