Houghton Revisited

Sir Robert Walpole, Great Britain‘s first Prime Minister, built Houghton Hall in Norfolk and filled it with a rich collection of Old Master paintings (CLICK). After he snuffed it, the collection was sold to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1779. Following the Russian Revolution, the collection went to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. For some reason best known to itself, Russia has decided to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Catherine the Great’s accession to the throne by loaning its magnificent Walpole collection of 70 paintings to Houghton Hall. BP is the lead sponsor. The example shown is Charles Lebrun's Daedalus and Icarus (ca 1645/46). Houghton Revisited is truly a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. It opens on 17 May and, as you might expect, costs an arm and a leg: adults £18 (CLICK).