The museum, linked to the Salomon R. Guggenheim Foundation of New York, was inaugurated in 1980 in the 1700s venetian palace purchased in 1949 by Peggy. 
The latter placed her contemporary art collection in the palace that includes paintings and sculptures of the major artistic currents and movements of the XX century.
Amongst the artists, Gino Severini, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian (Il mare, 1915-1916), Paul Klee (Giardino magico, 1924), Max Ernst (Vestizione della sposa, 1940), Juan Miró (Interno olandese, 1928), Constantin Brancusi, Giacomo Balla (Automobile: rumore + velocità, 1913 ca.), Salvador Dalí and Marc Chagall. 
Nowadays the museum hosts Peggy Guggenheim’s collection, the main one in Italy concerning 1900s European and American art, where one can admire cubist, abstract and surrealistic works by Picasso, De Chirico, Kandinskij, Magritte, Duchamp, Jackson Pollock and post-war artists.

Besides this collection, the museum also hosts 26 paintings from Gianni Mattioli’s Collection and The Garden of sculptures Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher.
The Guggenheim Foundation also organizes occasional exhibitions of contemporary art.