Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) collected art the way other heiresses collected shoes — compulsively, shrewdly, and with an unerring eye for genius before the world noticed. She bought Pollocks when he was unknown (€25 each). She married Max Ernst. She exhibited Kandinsky, Mondrian, Brancusi, Giacometti, Calder, Duchamp. In 1949 she settled in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on Venice’s Grand Canal — an UNFINISHED 18th-century palazzo (only one story was built, planned as three). She filled it with art. She lived among it until she died. The collection is still here. The palazzo is still unfinished. The art is still revolutionary. Dorsoduro →
The collection (326 works): Picasso (cubist period). Kandinsky (several major works). Mondrian. Brancusi (Bird in Space, Maiastra). Ernst (The Attirement of the Bride — she was married to him when she bought it). Pollock (Alchemy, 1947 — one of his first drip paintings). Giacometti (Walking Man). Magritte (Empire of Light). Dalí. Miró. The Marino Marini sculpture on the terrace: Angel of the City — a man on horseback with arms outstretched and an ERECT PHALLUS pointed at the Grand Canal. Peggy reportedly had a removable version for when nuns passed by on vaporetti.
The palazzo: The single-story structure with the Grand Canal terrace — walk the garden, see the canal from Peggy’s perspective. Her grave is in the garden, next to the graves of her 14 Lhasa Apso dogs. The inscription: "Here rests Peggy Guggenheim 1898-1979."
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Dorsoduro 701. Vaporetto 1 or 2 to Accademia. €16. Open Wed-Mon 10-18. Closed Tue. 1.5 hours. The museum shop is excellent (art books, prints, Guggenheim merchandise). Venice →