Hotels near Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection occupies the unfinished one-storey Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal - the home Peggy Guggenheim (niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim) bought in 1949 and lived in until her death in 1979. The museum displays her personal collection of 20th-century art: Picasso, Pollock, Magritte, Mondrian, Dali, Ernst, de Chirico, Brancusi, and Calder, plus key Italian Futurists like Boccioni and Severini. The works hang in the rooms where she lived with them, alongside her dressing table and her sunglasses collection.

The sculpture garden facing the canal includes the Marini bronze Angel of the City - the rider whose detachable phallus Peggy used to remove when nuns were due to visit. A glass pavilion on the garden hosts rotating exhibitions of contemporary artists. The whole museum is small enough to do in 90 minutes and offers a striking palate-cleanser after a day of Tintoretto and Titian. Peggy and her 14 dogs are buried in the garden.

Pro Tip: Combine with Santa Maria della Salute next door - they are 3 minutes apart on foot, share the Salute vaporetto stop, and pair into a full day of Dorsoduro art and architecture.