A survey of one of Britain’s foremost classical sculpture collections and the passionate collector behind it. 

In this scholarly and brilliantly illustrated book, Elizabeth Angelicoussis documents and assesses what is probably the best private collection of classical sculpture in Britain. The splendid Palladian mansion of Holkham Hall in Norfolk houses a collection of classical sculpture in Britain acquired in Italy by the highly knowledgable earl in the first half of the eighteenth century. It comprises some twenty full-scale Roman marble copies of Greek originals, as well as Roman portrait busts and other significant pieces. Angelicoussis also accounts for how the collection was curated by its creator, the Earl of Leicester (1697–1759). Casts of famous sculptures were chosen by the earl to round off his collection and allow him to create a classical world of his own. His arrangement of the sculptures in the main rooms of the house gave them an additional significance that goes far beyond a mere collection of individual pieces.