Over many decades, many stories and legends have flourished on Peggy Guggenheim and all of them have helped to strengthen the myth of an eccentric and avant-garde lady, a woman of unabashed manners.

However, few evidences offer us an affectionate and nostalgic portrait of the famous American collector like the one written by Paolo Barozzi, a sincere friend and confidant. First of all, he celebrates Peggy’s love for Venice, which is the real muse of the famous collection of the greatest work of art of the last century. It is in this city, in Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, that the vulnerability and romance of a woman perpetually in search of talent and passion is revealed, a woman who lives with the constant remorse of not having family attitude and who feels alive only among her friends,mainly artists. Thanks to the author, we learn as well to see in her that fragilehumanity that unites us all and that goes beyond the ostentatious appearances of an eternal high-class bohemian.

“… Because Peggy Guggenheim, the real one, the one that she never revealed, perhaps not even to herself, because of hershyness, was a single woman despite countless flirts; a hopelessly romantic woman… in the end she was very vulnerable and puritan, who defended herself fromthe brutality of life adopting unscrupulous attitudes and sometimes even resorting to alcohol … ”

Paolo Barozzi, Peggy Guggenheim –A woman, a collection, Venice
Campanotto Rifili Editore