Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is one of the most visited museums in the city, after the Doge’s Palace, and is one of Italy’s most important collections of European and American art from the first half of the 20th century. The Collection is housed in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which is located on the Grand Canal and is a building designed in the mid 18th century by architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The Palazzo was for many years the private residence of Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), a great art lover and niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, one of the most famous art collectors.

Guggenheim moved to Venice in 1948 and brought her collection of paintings, statues and works of modern art here, which she continued to expand until her death. After her death, Peggy Guggenheim’s works were bequeathed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which also runs the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Bilbao Museum. Since 1980 the Foundation has decided to follow the inclinations of Peggy, who loved Venice very much, and to continue to make the prized Peggy Guggenheim Collection available to the public by transforming Palazzo Venier dei Leoni into a museum. Inside the Palazzo, in addition to the famous Guggenheim collection, you can also admire the Gianni Mattioli collection, the Nasher sculpture garden and a number of temporary exhibitions that are cyclically organised.

Things to do at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection reveals all the passion and love that Peggy Guggenheim had for art. The museum is located in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, the only unfinished building in Venice, where Peggy Guggenheim wanted to create the largest museum on modern art in the 1950s.

The Guggenheim Collection boasts works from the major art movements of the 20th century such as Cubism and Futurism, Surrealism and American Abstract Expressionism to name but a few. Here you can admire creations by the greatest Western artists of the 20th century such as: Jean Arp, Francis Bacon, Constantin Brancusi, Georges Braque, Victor Brauner, Alexander Calder, Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dalí, Robert Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Juan Gris, Grace Hartigan, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, El Lissitzky, René Magritte, Kazimir Malevich, Marino Marini, Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Germaine Richier, Mark Rothko, Yves Tanguy and Emilio Vedova. These are joined by works from African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art.

Also of great interest is the Gianni Mattioli Collection, which includes works by artists of Italian Futurism such as Balla, Boccioni, Carrà, Rosai, Russolo, Severini, Sironi, Soffici and a portrait by Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The museum continues to expand its collections by also exhibiting works from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, who was Peggy’s uncle. In particular, in 2020 the museum acquired the Collection of Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof. The Schulhofs were two wealthy American citizens who were passionate about art and donated 83 works by important contemporary artists to the foundation, such as: Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Sol LeWitt, Lucio Fontana, Anish Kapoor, Alberto Burri, Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns and Mark Rothko.

Tickets to the Guggenheim Collection Venice

The Guggenheim in Venice is one of the most visited attractions in the city: we advise you to buy your entrance ticket directly online to avoid queues at the ticket offices.

Visiting Hours

Visiting hours for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are as follows:

Daily (except Tuesdays) from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, with last admission at 5:15 pm.

The closing day is Tuesday.

History of Peggy Guggenheim

Peggy Guggenheim was born in New York on 26 August 1898 into a wealthy American family that allowed her to cultivate her interests without having to worry too much about financial resources. Already a fan of modern art, she married the French artist Laurence Vail and frequented not only some of the best salons of the time but also several European avant-garde artists. In 1938, she opened her first gallery in London known as ‘Guggenheim Jeune’, which was to become a point of reference for many painters of the time such as Vasily Kandinskji, Yves Tanguy and other avant-garde artists.

In the 1940s, Guggenheim left Europe because of the war and returned to the United States where she opened her ‘Art of This Century’ gallery. In the meantime, her affair with Laurence Vail had ended and Guggenheim married the painter Max Ernst in 1941, but the marriage ended only two years later. In 1948 Peggy came to Venice to exhibit at the 24th Art Biennale and was so fascinated by the city that she decided to move here. That same year she bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and made it the definitive home of her prized collection, which was then opened to the public as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

How to get to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is located along the Grand Canal not far from the Accademia Bridge. The site can be reached on foot in about 20 minutes from St Mark’s Square. Alternatively if you want to travel by public transport from St Mark’s Square you can take:

• Vaporetto line 2, direction P. Roma, stop Accademia
• Vaporetto line 1, direction P. Roma, stop Salute or Accademia

Instead, from Piazzale Roma or the railway station you can reach the site by:

• Vaporetto line 2, direction Lido, Accademia stop
• Vaporetto line 1, direction Lido, Accademia or Salute stop