Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Peggy Guggenheim bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in 1948 and lived in it for thirty years with her collection and her dogs, both of which are still here — the dogs in the garden, under a stone.

Picasso, Ernst, Pollock, Magritte, Brancusi, Calder. She married Ernst and gave Pollock his first show, and the collection is a record of who she knew as much as what she liked.

The palazzo was begun in 1749 and abandoned at one storey when the money ran out, which is why it is the low white one in every photograph of this stretch of the canal — and why it has a terrace at all.

What it costs

Ticketed. Not on any Venetian pass — it is a private foundation.

There is a combined ticket with the Punta della Dogana and Palazzo Grassi if contemporary art is your reason for being here; otherwise it stands alone.

When to go

⚠️ Closed on Tuesdays. Otherwise it is open through the middle of the day when the churches are shut, which makes it the obvious thing to do between one and three.

It is small — an hour and a half is generous — which makes it a good pairing with the Accademia five minutes away, or with the Salute at the end of the same walk.

Getting there

Vaporetto to Accademia or Salute, five minutes either way, on the Dorsoduro bank.

If you only have an hour

The garden and the terrace on the canal — it is the only palazzo on the Grand Canal you can stand at the front of and look out from, because the building is one storey high and never got the rest.

What people get wrong

Expecting a palace. It was never finished; what stands is the ground floor of something intended to be much larger, which is why it is the odd low white one in every photograph of this stretch of the canal.