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During Easter 2016 our appointed conservation team completed extensive work to Francesco Sleter’s (1685-1775) ceiling painting Fame and Victory. The ceiling is above the eastern Grand Staircase and dates from the 1740s when Viscount Cobham was improving his home. Cobham commissioned Sleter to create grand iconographic themes of victorious warfare and civil justice. As a military man these themes were an important part of how Cobham wished the world to see him.

Work began in the autumn of 2022 on the final phase of restoration at Stowe House. Since the last great sale in 1922, just before the house became Stowe School, many treasures were scattered across the globe. Originally made for the State Dining Room, five Flemish tapestries commissioned by Lord Cobham have been rediscovered in Switzerland, Belgium, and Portugal. High-resolution photographs have been taken to reproduce the tapestries on high-quality printed wipeable wallpaper – a perfect solution as the room is still in use as a dining space. In addition, original chimneypieces and overmantels found at Benham House have been 3D scanned, reproduced, and refined by skilled craftsmen hand-carving them. Conservators have stripped layers of paint from the last 200 years on window shutters, dado rails and skirting revealing intricate patterns and gilding. A new French Oak floor has been laid after some original boards were found to be only three millimetres thick in places. The detailed ceiling, depicting stories of Venus and various animals, completed in 2022, concludes the decorative restoration of the room. This is a significant milestone in what has been one of the most comprehensive restoration projects of the twenty-first century. Since 2000, Stowe House Preservation Trust has spent over £26 million restoring the State Rooms and exterior facades on this Grade I listed building.