Houghton Hall

The pictures sold to Catherine the Great for cash to settle gambling debts now restored on loan from the Hermitage Museum to the home of Sir Robert Walpole - everything from Rembrandt, Velasquez to Rubens and many others: some gambling debts in today's money! The most intriguing, I thought, was a portrait by Velazquez of the mis-named Pope Innocent (X) - actually now owned by the National Gallery in Washington, sold by Stalin to raise foreign currency - what a history!