After over a year travelling around the UK and being exhibited in three exhibitions by the Government Art Collection, the famous portrait of the philhellene Lord Byron is back at the British Residence. On 12 September, Professor Roderick Beaton, from King’s College London, presented his latest book ‘Byron’s War’ at the Residence, in the presence of the Minister for Tourism, Olga Kefaloyanni, and guests who were celebrating the portrait’s return, as well as Byron’s contribution to literature and the liberation of Greece.

In the portrait by Thomas Phillips, Byron wears a red velvet jacket and headdress, with a velvet cloak draped across his left arm. He had bought the costume in the town of Tepeleni in 1809, while travelling across southern Europe with his friend, the future politician John Cam Hobhouse.