A New Era in Venice

One of the travelers on our recent Sotheby's & Indagare Insider Journey to Venice told me she comes to the Venice Biennale because she believes artists are visionaries who can often see what's on the horizon. Two years ago, the pavilions left her with a sense of foreboding; many of the works felt dark and pessimistic, as if presaging times of trouble. This year was different. After our tours of the Biennale, Homo Faber and many of the satellite exhibitions around the city, she said she was leaving Venice with a sense of hope. We all were. We had been buoyed by a massive dose of beauty.

Venice has long held a unique place in the worlds of art, architecture and artisanship, a testament to its historic endurance and perennial ingenuity. In recent years, the floating city has also become a cautionary tale of overtourism. Swarms of visitors cram into St. Mark's Square and the narrow streets and bridges around it, and many of us assume, as I once did, that we saw Venice in better times. Skipping it now would be a mistake: because no matter how many times you have visited, it is almost impossible, when approaching its ethereal beauty by boat not to feel a sense of entering a fairytale—and a quieter transformation is under way on two fronts.

The first is cultural. Over the past two decades, collectors and creators from François Pinault and Miuccia Prada to Dries Van Noten have turned historic palazzos into foundations, so the chance to see cutting-edge contemporary art alongside the city's centuries-old masterpieces is no longer confined to Biennale years. Venice has become the pre-eminent place where classical art is in constant dialogue with the most exciting living artists. The second is hospitality. The city has learned that cruise-ship day-trippers are not the visitors who sustain it, and serious luxury investment is pouring in: brand-new hotels, ambitious restorations of legendary ones and, with them, a far better restaurant scene than Venice has ever had.

We timed our journey to coincide with the Venice Art Biennale, now in its 61st edition and more than 130 years old. Yet many of our most magical art moments happened outside its international pavilions.

Homo Faber, the craft biennial founded in 2018 and devoted to the world's top artisans, was arguably the most talked-about cultural event of the fall, with tickets almost as hard to secure as those to Celine Dion or to view the Bayeux Tapestry. Its name is Latin for "Man the Maker," and its fourth edition, held throughout September on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, was directed by the British artist and stage designer Es Devlin. Devlin has wowed crowds with Super Bowl halftime shows, the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and concert extravaganzas for performers such as Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. Here, across fifteen immersive installations, she brought together more than 700 objects by some 500 ceramicists, weavers, jewelers, woodworkers, silversmiths and other makers from over 70 countries, weaving their individual genius into a single tapestry—a testament to the human quest for exquisite expression.

In "A Full Moon Rising," a semicircular shelf of Korean moon jars rose and sank in the Cini Foundation's former swimming pool, its reflection evoking a moon rising over the sea. In the Benedictine cloister designed by Palladio in 1579, Devlin installed "A Great Turning," a large mirror that turns slowly above a reflecting pool. As shadows, light and reflections danced around that noble space, Gregorian-inspired chants cast a sacred spell that brought the swelling wonder at an assembly of so much beauty to a crescendo. The crowds of San Marco were a short boat ride away, but the intimate invitation to go inward created a profound sense of solitude and awe. "Homo Faber wasn't just an aesthetic event," marveled one of our travelers, "but a deeply emotional, even spiritual, one because of how craft was shown to celebrate the relationship between humans and beauty."

A similar belief in the power of beauty also animated one of the city's most exciting new venues. This spring, the Belgian designer Dries Van Noten and his partner, Patrick Vangheluwe, opened the Fondazione Dries Van Noten in Palazzo Pisani Moretta, the 15th-century Gothic palazzo on the Grand Canal that they bought. Its inaugural exhibition borrowed its title from the 1960s protest singer Phil Ochs: "The Only True Protest Is Beauty." A curator led us through twenty of the palazzo's rococo rooms, where more than 200 works were in dialogue with one another: fashion from Christian Lacroix and Comme des Garçons, jewelry from the legendary Venetian house of Codognato, and photography, sculpture, paintings and objects by artists such as Steven Shearer, Kaori Kurihara and Ann Carrington. As at Homo Faber, the effect went beyond aesthetic appreciation to suggest a call for finding comfort in beauty.

Our access made the satellite exhibitions just as memorable. We toured the Peggy Guggenheim Collection before it opened to the public and were welcomed by its director, Karole Vail, the founder's granddaughter. We had drinks beside one of Dale Chihuly's monumental new glass sculptures on the Grand Canal, installed thirty years after his landmark "Chihuly Over Venice." After closing, we had the Gallerie dell'Accademia to ourselves to experience Marina Abramović's "Transforming Energy," the first major exhibition there by a living woman artist, which sets her work in conversation with masterpieces such as Titian's Pietà. (One of our guests, an expert in crystals, coached our group on harnessing the power of the crystal-studded stones in the exhibition, an excellent example of how our travelers enrich our access.) We were also alone with the newly restored canvases of the Miracles of the True Cross cycle by Gentile Bellini and Vittore Carpaccio. Years of conservation have brought their depictions of 1490s Venice back to vivid life. There was time, too, for "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Fondazione Prada's Ca' Corner della Regina and for Michael Armitage's "The Promise of Change" at the Pinault Collection's Palazzo Grassi. On our last night, there was even an actual full moon rising over the Grand Canal.

The red thread running through it all was hope. The curators behind Homo Faber and the Dries Van Noten show are clearly preoccupied with finding light in difficult times and convinced that creating and admiring beauty is essential to being human. The same note sounds in the Biennale itself. Its curator, the late Koyo Kouoh, who died in 2025 before her exhibition could open, titled it "In Minor Keys" and tuned it to "the songs of those producing beauty in spite of tragedy": art made by people rebuilding after loss and mending what is broken. Some beauty is ephemeral, and some lasts for centuries. In Venice this fall, in the mix of both, we found exactly what she promised.

The second half of Venice's renaissance is happening behind hotel doors. In 2026 alone, the French palace group Les Airelles made its international debut on Giudecca; Orient Express revived a palazzo with interiors originally designed by the same architect behind the Ca d'Oro, which had never been a hotel; the Danieli reopened as a Four Seasons and the Cipriani unveiled the first phase of a top-to-bottom renovation by starchitect Peter Marino. Next up is the Palazzo Bauer reopening as a Rosewood after a renovation purported to cost more than 200 million euros. Just as important for travelers, these hotels are transforming a dining scene that has long been the city's weak spot.

Airelles Palladio is a garden-filled retreat on Giudecca for travelers who want to pop over to Venice but stay cloistered away from the crowds. Its restaurants by Norbert Niederkofler, Nobu Matsuhisa and Jean-Georges Vongerichten are worth the shuttle ride even if you stay elsewhere. Read our full review

Orient Express Venezia, set in a 1436 palazzo in Cannaregio that Aline Asmar d'Amman spent eight years restoring, has some of the most dramatic interiors in the city and feels like a true hideaway for couples and Venice repeaters. Read our full review

At the Cipriani, Peter Marino's renovation has made the legend fresher and brighter without losing its soul, adding a Dior spa and opening Oro, overseen by Massimo Bottura, among other new dining options. Read our full review

The Danieli, now a Four Seasons, still has one of Venice's most theatrical lobbies and a rooftop terrace with sweeping lagoon views. Once its restoration is complete with a new spa and the city's largest indoor pool, it may be the best central location for families. Read our full review

Our group stayed at The Gritti Palace, which remains wonderful for traditionalists: Some may find the rooms dated, but I love the old school charm and rooms full of antiques, and its Grand Canal terrace and patina of history hard to match. Read our full review

Next up is the Rosewood Hotel Bauer, due to open in the summer of 2027; it should give travelers a more sophisticated central option.