The British Museum has announced that on 1 July tickets will go on sale for what is set to be the museum event of the century. After years of negotiations and fears that such a fragile object should make the trip, the Bayeux Tapestry will be on view in London from September to July next year. The detail that time slots will be for only 40 minutes has caused Rakewell to raise an eyebrow. With the Tapestry being 70m-long, that means each visitor has about 34 seconds to move along the work in 7cm intervals. While, at first glance, this seems like a very mean amount of time, it’s worth considering that the Tapestry will be displayed in a straight line – as it has not been in the old Bayeux Tapestry Museum – which requires visitors to keep moving. It’s also worth considering that when the work’s permanent home in Bayeux reopens in 2027 it has been reported that visitors will have only 25 minutes to see it.

The British Museum’s previous all-time blockbusters include ‘Treasures of Tutankhamun’ (1972) and ‘The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army’ (2007), which attracted 1.2m and 850,000 visitors respectively. But it’s much easier to make your way through exhibitions of sculpture: you can usually find a vantage point that works, though you do have to be prepared to keep moving. And while Rakewell has made elaborate manoeuvres to get a good view of a painting – ‘Vermeer’ at the Rijksmuseum being the prime example – patience usually pays off. If the Bayeux Tapestry turns out to be a much more linear experience, that is down to the nature of the work – and here’s to making every second count.