Peggy Guggenheim created a renowned art collection in Europe and America primarily between 1938 and 1946. She began buying Cubist, Abstract and Surrealist art in Europe in the years immediately before World War II. Due to World War II, Peggy returned to New York in 1942 and opened her “Art of this Century” gallery. This became the key inspiration for the Abstract Expressionists like Mark Rothko, David Hare, Clifford Still and Jackson Pollock.

In 1949 Peggy Guggenheim settled in Venice, and bought the unfinished Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, along the Grand Canal. The building, started in 1749, was originally intended as a four-storey palace, yet it never rose beyond the ground floor. Peggy transferred her entire collection there, and since 1951 Peggy’s house and garden were opened to the public.  She lived there for the rest of her life, and exhibited her art collection embracing all the major movements which have transformed the very concept of art. She continued buying contemporary art until her death in December 1979. The garden, a setting for sculptures by Arp, Moore, Giacometti, Ernst and other, is where Peggy is buried with her beloved dogs.

The collection, with incredible masterpieces, provide a striking contrast to the Venetian paintings you can see in other Venetian museums. A visit to the Guggenheim collection will offer you the opportunity to admire  more than 200 modern paintings and sculptures. You will see Picasso, Brancusi, Dalí, Pollock, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Max Ernst, Mondrian, Magritte, Tanguy, Braque and many other. One of the most coherent surveys of Modernism you can see in Italy.

DURATION: 2 hours

THE PRICE OF THE GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION TOUR INCLUDES:

• the service of a certified tour guide
• admission to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection