The Lansdowne Collection once included 100 classical sculptures. It was essentially started by Gavin Hamilton (1723 - 1798), one of the most successful British explorers of the sites of antiquity during the 18th century. His enthusiasm and his acute aesthetic judgement inspired his patrons to assemble the collection for the specially designed gallery in Lansdowne - House. For a long time the famous private collection, created between the late 1760s and the 1820s, formed the heart of the Lansdowne mansi on in London before it was dispersed after 1930. Elizabeth Angelicoussis, expert for Roman sculpture in private British houses, has reunited the works, now scattered across the globe, in two art books. The first one illustrates, for example, the history of the formation of the collection and the gallery. The second volume catalogues and assesses each known sculpture and assigns it a place in current research and within the context of Roman art history .