Peggy Guggenheim Collection
She bought Cubism and Surrealism "in dizzying succession" as Europe fell apart — then parked the haul in her Grand Canal palazzo.
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Peggy Guggenheim assembled this collection mostly between 1938 and 1946, sweeping through Europe as World War II began and later discovering Jackson Pollock in America. Her 18th-century Palazzo Venier dei Leoni draws around 400,000 visitors a year — the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace — and has been open year-round since 1980, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation took over after her death.
What to look for
- Giorgio de Chirico's The Red Tower and The Nostalgia of the Poet, two Italian works from the collection's roster of prominent modernists
- Marcel Duchamp's Sad Young Man on a Train, one of several French modernist pieces acquired during the 1938–1946 collecting years
- Works by Jackson Pollock, whose talent Guggenheim was among the first to champion during her time in America
Located in the Dorsoduro sestiere directly on the Grand Canal; open year-round since 1980.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection is one of 38 sights worth the detour in Venice, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Venice pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Venice
- St Mark's BasilicaThe Doge's private chapel turned war-trophy hall — every marble slab and bronze horse was taken from somewhere else.
- Doge's PalaceGovernment offices, a jail, and the Doge's private rooms — all under one Venetian Gothic roof on the lagoon edge.
- Grand CanalVenice's main street is water — a 3.8 km reverse-S where noble families spent fortunes trying to outshine each other in stone and marble.
- Piazza San MarcoNapoleon called it "the drawing room of Europe" — then stripped it of its four horses and shipped them to Paris.
- Rialto BridgePredicted to collapse before it opened, this single-span stone arch has carried Venice's Grand Canal traffic since 1591.
- Bridge of SighsLord Byron named it in the 19th century — condemned men crossing in 1600 took their last look at Venice through stone-barred windows before the cells closed behind them.