The British Museum privately hosted tech billionaire Peter Thiel for a VIP viewing of the Bayeux tapestry on 18 August, before the exhibition has opened to the public, the Guardian understands. The visit, arranged by the museum's director of development, Charlotte Appleyard, has caused concern among staff given Thiel's links to Jeffrey Epstein and his company Palantir's controversial role in UK government contracts, with worries that scarce "light hours" needed to protect the fragile artwork were used for someone with no known connection to the museum.

Museum chair George Osborne was aware of the viewing but did not attend, and the museum says no light hours were taken from the public allocation and that Thiel is not a donor. Members of the public faced queues of up to nine hours and nearly 80,000 people online when tickets first went on sale, with the next batch released on 21 October; hotel guests at One Aldwych can also bypass the queue. Thiel's Palantir holds a £330m NHS contract that MPs have urged Labour to scrap, and its Metropolitan Police contract was blocked by London mayor Sadiq Khan, a decision Palantir is now challenging in the High Court.