The art collection of Holkham Hall in Norfolk, England, remains very largely that which the original owner intended the house to display; the house was designed around the art collection acquired (a few works were commissioned) by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, during his Grand Tour of Italy during 1712–18. To complete the scheme it was necessary to send Matthew Brettingham the younger to Rome between 1747 and 1754 to purchase further works of art.

The design of the house was a collaborative effort between Thomas Coke, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and William Kent, with Matthew Brettingham the elder acting as the on-site architect. The house was built between 1736 and 1764, with work on the interiors only completed in 1771. By 1769 all the men involved had died, leaving Thomas's widow, Lady Margaret Tufton, Countess of Leicester (1700–1775), to oversee the completion of the house. Their only child to survive infancy, Edward Coke, Viscount Coke, had died without issue in 1753.

The house is designed with a corps de logis containing the state rooms on the first floor (piano nobile), surrounded by four wings: to the south-west the family wing, to the north-west the guest wing, to the south-east the chapel wing and to the north-east the kitchen wing. With all the intervening doors open it is possible to stand in the Long Library and look down the full length of the southern State Rooms and see the east window of the Chapel in the opposing wing the full length of the house. The family wing is a self-contained residence, meant for daily living.

The Marble Hall is in the centre of the north front. To its west is the North Dining Room (also called the State Dining Room), then along the west side of the corps de logis is the Statue Gallery, to its east on the south front is the Drawing Room, then the Saloon, South Dining Room, Landscape Room north of which on the east side of the corps de logis is the Green State Bedroom, Green State Dressing Room, North State Dressing Room, the North State Bedroom, and finally to the west the State Sitting Room with the Marble Hall to its west.

Much thought went into the placing of sculptures and paintings, involving subtle connections and contrasts in the mythological and historical characters and stories depicted. The state rooms were designed with symmetrical arrangements of doors, windows and fireplaces; this meant that some walls have false doors to balance real doors. This need for balance and harmony extended to the placing of sculpture, paintings and furniture, each artwork being balanced by a piece of similar size though sometimes of contrasting subject matter. Examples are the two paintings commissioned by Thomas Coke above the fireplaces in the Saloon, Tarquin Raping Lucretia and Perseus and Andromeda. In the first painting Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the last king of Rome, is violating a woman, while in the second painting a man is rescuing a woman from being killed. The result of the rape of Lucretia is the overthrow of a tyrant; the rescue of Andromeda results in Perseus becoming a king. Other connections are the sculptures in the two exedras of the Statue Gallery: in the southern one are two satyrs, symbols of ungoverned passion and lust, while opposite are the virgin Athena, goddess of wisdom, and Ceres, the preserver of marriage and sacred law. In the Landscape Room it is possible to go from looking at the paintings to looking through the window at a real Landscape garden, one influenced by the images on the walls.

The works collected in Italy include: sculpture, paintings, mosaics, books, manuscripts and old master drawings (most of which have been sold). The books included one of Leonardo da Vinci's note books now known as the Codex Leicester which was sold from the collection in 1980.

Sculpture

Grand Tour. The collection of 60 Ancient Roman marble sculptures is amongst the finest in any private collection in the world. The collection consists of both life size and greater than life size statues and busts that include several of the Twelve Olympians, characters from Greek mythology, ancient Greek philosophers and ancient Romans of the imperial era, plus other sculptures. Most have been repaired to varying extents. The full length statues are mainly displayed in the Statue Gallery along with busts which are also to be found throughout the State Rooms.

Matthew Brettingham the Younger dispatched the first consignment of sculptures from Rome in 1749. Because of the difficulty in getting permission from the Papal authorities to export the sculpture of Isis the second consignment was not dispatched until 1751, after which sculptures were exported annually until the last shipment in the summer of 1754.

Among the finest of the works are:

The bust of Thucydides dated 100–120 AD, of Carrara marble 79.5 cm high, purchased by Matthew Brettingham. With only minor repairs this is one of the finest busts of the era to survive. This powerful characterisation presents the historian in late middle age with a strong-boned squarish face with a high broad forehead, receding temples and bald patch. The three furrows on the brow make this a convincing portrait. The goddess Artemis/Diana dated to 190–200 AD, believed to be a copy of a mid-4th-century BC Hellenistic original, with only minor repairs. Purchased in Rome by Thomas Coke on 13 April 1717 for 900 crowns (about £250), this was Thomas's most expensive purchase. The marble statue is 1.86 metres high, shown wearing a peplos, holding a bow in the left hand; the right hand is reaching for an arrow held in a quiver on the sculpture's back. Marsyas, dated to 180–190 AD, probably a copy of a 2nd-century BC Greek statue. Originally owned by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, it was purchased by Matthew Brettingham. The marble statue is 2.01 metres in height. The bearded figure is naked, left elbow leaning on a tree stump, in a contrapposto stance, with a lion skin knotted across its chest and hanging down the back. The right arm is bent upwards holding a cudgel. The Empress Livia, dated mid-1st century AD, purchased for 300 crowns by Matthew Brettingham. Made from Parian marble 2.23 metres in height, the statue is contrapposto, dressed in a floor length chiton girt under the breasts, forming an apoptygma or overfold, with short sleeves. A cloak is pulled to the crown of the head and envelopes the lower body, crossing the left shoulder and drawn across the front of the body and is draped over the left forearm. In the left hand is held a bunch of wheat ears. The god Poseidon/Neptune dated late 1st to early 2nd centuries AD is thought to be a copy of a Greek sculpture of the 1st half of the 2nd century BC, purchased in Rome in 1752 by Matthew Brettingham for 800 crowns. Made from Parian marble, it is 1.73 metres high, the god is depicted naked, standing; the left leg is slightly bent and drawn back resting on the ball of the foot. The left hand holds onto a trident resting on the ground and the right arm is raised slightly. The head has thick curly hair and a beard.

In the following list sculptures marked with an * were purchased by Thomas Coke on his Grand Tour; any marked # were purchased by Matthew Brettingham the younger.

The Roman statues include:

The Statue Gallery: the southern exedra: Satyrs, one playing a flute# and one wearing a pigskin#; south of the fireplace: Meleager#, Marsyas# & Poseidon/Neptune#; above the fireplace: Apollo*; north of the fireplace: Dionysus/Bacchus#, Artemis/Diana* and Aphrodite/Venus#; the northern exedra: Athena/Minerva# and Demeter/Ceres#. The North Tribune: Isis# repaired with a head from another statue, Livia# repaired with a head of Lucius Verus* and an unidentified man wearing a toga (purchased as Lucius Antonius)*. The Marble Hall: in the niches of the apse: a statue repaired with a head of Septimius Severus# and a heavily restored statue of Julia Mamaea*; within the niches of the exedra an Ephebos restored as a Satyr# and a heavily restored Satyr playing cymbals*. Private Rooms: Tyche/Fortuna# (purchased as Isis) and a torso of a draped male (purchased as Jupiter*. (It was this statue that William Kent intended to restore and place in the centre of the stairs in the Marble Hall, thus placing the main god of Olympus at the literal centre of the House).

The Roman busts include depictions/portraits of the following: The Marble Hall: On a half-column outside the door to the State Sitting Room is the bust of Roma dated 130–140 AD; the head is of white marble mounted on a post-Roman body of rosso antico marble (probably purchased in Rome by Edward Coke in 1737). The Statue Gallery: Cybele* in the pediment above Apollo, flanking the northern exedra; Lucius Cornelius Sulla# and Thucydides#; flanking the southern exedra Lucius Junius Brutus# and Pseudo-Seneca#; between the windows an unidentified man# and a woman# (these last two are not part of Thomas Coke's arrangement of the sculptures). The North Tribune: Above the doors, Emperor Philip as a youth# and Faustina the Elder#. The South Tribune: Above the doors and bookcases, Hadrian#, Julia Mamaea#, Julia di Tito#, Caesar Marcus Aurelius*, Gallienus# and Geta#. The North Dining Room: In oval niches above the fireplaces Aelius Verus# and Juno#; flanking the apse Marcus Aurelius# & Caesar Geta# (these last two busts have white marble heads mounted on post-Roman bodies of variegated marble). The Saloon: Above the central door Hera/Juno#. Private Rooms: Zeus/Jupiter*, Artemis (acquired c1737, origin unknown), Salonina#, Nerva*, Plato#, Caracalla#, Gordian III#, Maecenas# and a badly eroded male head, possibly Greek, c400 BC. acquired by the 5th Earl in 1955.

Other Roman sculptures include: The Statue Gallery: Between Apollo and the fireplace an oval white marble relief of Julius Caesar# in profile, enclosed in an 18th-century dark veined marble frame. The South Vestibule: Flanking the north door, the Ash Altar of Caius Calpurnius Cognitus*, 1st quarter of the 1st century AD, and the Cinerarium of Petronius Hedychrus*, 1st quarter 2nd century AD. Private Rooms: Profile relief of Carneades#, a statuette of the Nile river god#, Sarcophagus of T. Flabius Hermetes#, marble Oscillum# depicting a cavorting satyr, a Herma# and fragments of a sarcophagus decorated with sea-creatures*.

There are several sculptures dating from the post-Roman era:

The Marble Hall contains a series of plaster casts of eight sculptures: in the niches of the east wall Apollo, Flora, Bacchus, Isis, and in the niches of the west wall Aphrodite, Hermes, St. Susanna and Capitoline Antinous, plus a plaster copy of Louis-François Roubiliac's marble bust of Thomas Coke above the door in the apse (the original is part of his tomb in Tittleshall church), and on marble half-columns Francis Chantrey's marble busts of 'Coke of Norfolk' and a second one of Thomas Coke. There is a set of four white marble reliefs in the apse flanking the niches (added by 'Coke of Norfolk'): Thomas Banks's The Death of Germanicus, Richard Westmacott's Death of Socrates, Stoldo Lorenzi's Lorenzo I and Francis Chantrey's The Passing of the Reform Bill 1832, plus a marble plaque of two woodcock by Chantrey. The Drawing Room: Marble copies of busts of Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla on the mantelpiece, and plaster busts of Faustina, Carneades, Pythagoras and Zeno above the doors. The South Dining Room: Four plaster busts above the doors. The South Vestibule consisting of a rectangular room beneath the Portico linked by five arches to a semicircular section beneath the Saloon, that has a large niche flanked by smaller ones each side of the north door; these used to house plaster casts of statues, to the west: Dancing Faun, Apollo Belvedere and Ganymede; and to the east: Ptolemy, Meleager and The Venus des Belles Fesses. There also used to be busts on brackets between the piers of the arches: Cicero, Plato, Lysias and Seneca.