This tapestry-lined private sitting room is in Houghton Hall, a home built by Britain's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in 1722 in Norfolk. It once housed what was considered to be one of the finest collections of art in Britain until hundreds of the pieces were sold to Catherine the Great by the financially troubled heirs of the state. Houghton Hall's current owner and descendent of Walpole, David George Philip Cholmondeley the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, was able to secure a temporary return of 70 of the pictures, which hung in their original locations for six months.
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