Venice Water Taxi

Visit Venice

The Ca Pesaro houses the Museum of Modern Art as well as the Oriental Museum, it is know, not only for its collections, but for the building which houses them. The museum is within the former Palace home of the Pesaro family at San Stae, and faces onto the Grand Canal. Leonardo Pesaro commissioned architect Baldassare Longhena to design the family home. You can still see some of the original frescoes and ceiling paintings in the grand palace gallery rooms. Some of the work was done by G.B. Tiepolo, Bambini, Pittoni and Trevisant.

The Oriental Museum is on the third, and top, floor of the palace and holds an impressive collection Edo Period Japanese art. Most of the collection arrived in Venice with Henry II of Borbonne, Count of Bardi who traveled to the East and purchased the art in the late 1800s. In all there are about 30,000 pieces in the collection including swords, weapons, armor, enamel artifacts, porcelain and sections featuring art from Indonesia and China.

The International Modern Art Museum was created as early as 1898 it holds examples of 19th and 20th century paintings and sculptures. Of note are works in wax by Morandi De Chirico and work by Carra, Kandinsky, Chagall, Klimt, Klee, Moore and Miro. Over the years the emphasis on which art work to highlight has changed. Originally it was very focused on Italian artists, then European and today you can see a wide range of international artists represented.