 The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was the home of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim for three decades.She began displaying her private collection of modern artworks to the public seasonally in 1951.After her death in 1979, it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which opened the collection year-round from 1980.