Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Peggy Guggenheim lived in Venice for thirty years in a palazzo that was never finished — the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was started in 1749 but only the ground floor was ever built, making it the lowest building on the Grand Canal. Nobody knows exactly why construction stopped; one popular theory is that the rival Palazzo Corner across the canal blocked the project out of jealousy. Peggy loved the unfinished quality. She sunbathed on the roof in full view of passing vaporetti and hung modern art on every available surface.

The collection she assembled is staggering: Picasso, Pollock, Dalí, Kandinsky, Max Ernst (who was also her second husband, a relationship she described as "turbulent"), Brancusi, Magritte, and dozens more. She had an unerring eye for talent and bought aggressively during the war years when prices were low and artists were desperate. Jackson Pollock was virtually unknown when she gave him his first solo show in 1943 at her New York gallery, Art of This Century.

The palazzo's terrace overlooking the Grand Canal features Marino Marini's bronze sculpture "Angel of the City" — a man on horseback with his arms spread wide and a prominently erect phallus pointed directly at passing boats. Peggy reportedly unscrewed the detachable appendage when nuns passed by on their way to the church next door.

After her death in 1979, the collection passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Her ashes are buried in the garden alongside her beloved dogs — fourteen of them, each named on a small plaque. The museum now attracts around 400,000 visitors a year, making it one of the most visited attractions in Venice.