Here Lies

PEGGY GUGGENHEIM

1898 – 1979

HERE LIE MY BELOVED BABIES

CAPPUCINO 1949 – 1953

PEGEEN 1951 – 1953

PEACOCK 1952 – 1953

TORO 1954 – 1957

FOGLIA 1956 – 1958

MADAM BUTTERFLY 1954 – 1958

BABY 1949 – 1959

EMILY 1945 – 1960

WHITE ANGEL 1945 – 1960

SIR HERBERT 1952 – 1965

SABLE 1958 – 1973

GYPSY 1961 – 1975

HONG KONG 1964 – 1978

CELLIDA 1964 – 1979

Marguerite Guggenheim, known as Peggy, was born into great wealth in New York City, the middle daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Silegman Guggenheim.  The Guggenheim family made their fortune mining and smelting metals.  The Silegman’s were bankers.  Peggy’s father, Benjamin, was tragically lost on the Titanic.

Peggy married Laurence Vail and had two children—Sinbad and Pegeen.  The marriage ended in divorce and she married again to Max Ernst.  This marriage also ended in divorce.

Peggy was the quintessential collector of modern art and opened a series of art galleries in her lifetime—in Paris, New York, and the last of which was in her home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, located on Venice’s Grand Canal. 

She made her collection her life’s work.  She wrote of herself, “I am not a collector, I am a museum.” And during her life, she was indeed a museum, opening her home to visitors three days a week to share her impressive collection of modern artworks by artists such as Max Ernst, Picasso, Alexander Calder, Vasily Kandinsky, and Jackson Pollock, among others. 

After her death on December 23, 1979, her home became a permanent art gallery and her final resting place.  Her ashes, along with the ashes of her 14 dogs, were buried in a quiet corner of her garden at the Palazzo.