Littell's Living Age/Volume 115/Issue 1489/Restoration of Bayeux Tapestry

In the course of the present year the South Kensington Museum has restored to the people of Bayeux the morsel missing from the celebrated tapestry preserved in that town. The thief was no other than the wife of Stothard the artist who went to Bayeux in 1830 in order to execute his well-known copy of the work in question. Mrs. Stothard profited by the courteous facilities granted to her husband for the purpose of his painting to cut with her scissors a piece about as big as a hand from one of the sides of the embroidered cloth. At the death of Mrs Stothard, some years back, the museum of South Kensington became possessed of the stolen piece, together with an account written by. Mr. Stothard, of the circumstances under which his wife committed the disgraceful theft. The directors of the South Kensington Museum, when sending over this summer some artists to photograph the tapestry, announced their coming in a letter containing the relic, which has been gratefully received, and found to agree thread for thread with the original.