Considered one of the most visited attractions in Venice and one of the top ten in Italy, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a Modern Art Museum in the heart of Venice.
Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) was born to the wealthy Guggenheim family in New York City. In her 20s, she moved to Europe; in her 40s, she opened a gallery for modern art in London and started collecting art. Her gallery showcased famous and some less-famous artists as well as group exhibitions of sculptures and collages of contemporary artists.
After 11 years of operation, in 1939, she closed the gallery, wishing to upgrade and open a contemporary art museum. She tried in London and then Paris, but the outbreak of World War II drove her back to NYC in 1941, where she opened an art gallery called The Art of This Century.
Following the end of World War II and her divorce in 1946, she relocated to Venice, Italy, settling in the 18th-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (‘unfinished palazzo of the lions’) on the Grand Canal in 1948.
Every year, since 1951, from April to September, she opened her home to the public to view her collection. She donated her home and art collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation three years before she died. She passed away in 1979; her ashes were scattered in the garden.
The museum opened its door in 1980. It showcases works of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists working in such genres as Cubism, Surrealism, and abstract expressionism.
In 2017, Peggy Guggenheim’s granddaughter, Karole Vail, became the second director of the collection.
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