Some sections of the embroidery were uncovered, including one showing the Anglo-Saxon King Harold, while others were protected with dark sheets.
Once the tapestry has been checked and is perfectly laid out, in the coming days, it will placed inside a sealed glass case.
Seeing the tapestry being installed “was an amazing thing to witness”, Lewis said in the gallery.
Museum staff and French colleagues will be “condition checking the tapestry over the next few weeks”, he said, but “as far as I’m concerned it has worked really well”.
French culture minister Catherine Pegard visited the museum to see the 68m embroidery.
She said: “We are now carrying out all the checks to make sure that every aspect of the journey went smoothly.”
She referred to the transportation of the delicate artwork as a “titanic undertaking” and a “technical feat”.
French teams will remain at the British Museum until mid‑August to “oversee all the work involved in installing the tapestry”, Pegard said.
Transported to London under tight security by truck from western France, the tapestry was initially kept in a specially designed double case to limit vibrations and maintain constant temperature and humidity levels.
It was slowly removed from the case on Thursday and fully unfurled.
The final exhibition will include visual projections of small areas of the tapestry to help explain the story, as well as “some sound”.
Lewis told AFP: “The idea is to bring the tapestry to life.
“I think a lot of people coming to the Bayeux Tapestry think it’s about the Battle of Hastings… but those scenes are only the last third, so there’s lots of events beforehand.
“Some of them people will be familiar with and others they won’t be, and that needs to be explained to them to help them through that.”
– AFP
