Few hotels can claim to be both muse and gallery, but The St. Regis Venice occupies that rare intersection. Rising from a cluster of noble palazzi along the Grand Canal, the property has long been tied to art history. Claude Monet once made it his Venetian base, sketching and painting from its upper floors as the sun shifted across San Giorgio Maggiore. The hotel has leaned into this heritage with more than a passing nod. Today, art is not only hung on its walls but woven into its very identity, most vividly through a partnership with Murano’s famed Berengo Studio.
Berengo: Where Tradition Meets Reinvention
Founded by Adriano Berengo, the studio is renowned for bringing contemporary artists into dialogue with Murano’s centuries-old glassmaking tradition. At The St. Regis Venice, this collaboration transcends the idea of “hotel art.” Instead of decorative flourishes, Berengo has curated and created works that act as a counterpoint to the building’s Venetian history. Guests are greeted not just by marble and gilding but by bold glass sculptures, installations, and even the cocktail glasses in which their drinks arrive.
Ai Weiwei’s White Chandelier
The most commanding example is White Chandelier, a soaring creation by Ai Weiwei crafted with Berengo’s artisans. Suspended in the Gran Salone, it appears at first like a lavish Baroque chandelier, shimmering with delicate blooms and curling branches. Look closer and it reveals Ai Weiwei’s signature provocations: a crab here, a pair of handcuffs there, a single raised finger tucked amid the glass tendrils. The piece is both homage and disruption, reframing a centuries-old Venetian form with contemporary urgency. Berengo’s role extends beyond Ai Weiwei. Elsewhere in the hotel, visitors encounter works by Jaume Plensa—serene sculpted heads that seem caught between thought and dream.
Simon Berger’s Shattered Icons
The most recent additions are four large-scale portraits by Swiss artist Simon Berger, installed in the Gran Salone under the direction of Ambra Rollero, the hotel’s marketing director. Berger is known for using nothing more than a hammer to etch fractured portraits into sheets of safety glass. At The St. Regis Venice, he has turned his technique toward icons linked to the hotel and its cultural orbit: Claude Monet, who painted Venice from these very windows; Caroline Astor, the doyenne of the St. Regis legacy; Carlo Scarpa, the Venetian architect celebrated for his glasswork and refined modernism; and Marchesa Luisa Casati, the flamboyant patroness who epitomized art as performance. The choice of glass as medium is particularly apt. Each portrait hovers between solidity and fragility, as if fame itself were suspended in transparency.
The Arts Bar: Where Glass Becomes Cocktail
The most playful expression of the Berengo partnership lives at The Arts Bar, where every drink arrives as both cocktail and artwork. Here, the vessels themselves are as carefully designed as the recipes they hold. Working with Berengo artisans, the bar has commissioned custom glassware inspired by masterworks of art, transforming each cocktail into a performance.
Take the Silver Dreams, for example—a sparkling mix of vodka, elderflower, popcorn syrup, and champagne. It is served in a Marilyn-themed glass, its bold palette and contours echoing Andy Warhol’s famous silkscreens. Or Through the Trees, a drink built on aquavit, roasted barley syrup, and absinthe, whose jagged glass recalls Edvard Munch’s The Scream. For Picasso, there is Canvas Temptation, a fig and tonka cordial, poured into a geometric glass that mirrors the artist’s fractured canvases. Salvador Dali is honored in The Negroni Desire, delivered in a glass inspired by his Birth of Liquid Desire. Even Ai Weiwei’s White Chandelier finds its liquid counterpart in AW Vision, a cocktail served in a glass adorned with tiny Murano claws, echoing the chandelier’s hidden crabs.
Each glass is meticulously designed not only for its artistic resonance but also for the way it interacts with the drink inside. Berengo artisans consider how the glass catches light, how it feels in the hand, and how its colors shift as liquid swirls. In the bar itself, guests can browse notebooks of sketches and prototypes, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process.
A Living Legacy of Monet
This fusion of art and hospitality would have pleased Claude Monet, who found endless inspiration within these walls more than a century ago. During his 1908 stay at the then-Grand Hotel Britannia, he painted a series of canvases capturing San Giorgio Maggiore across the canal, each canvas shifting with the hour and the atmosphere. From the hotel’s upper windows, he studied the water, the light, and the architecture, producing works that remain among his most celebrated Venetian studies.
Today, the hotel honors this legacy not only with the art program but also with a suite designed to echo Monet’s palette. The space draws inspiration from the blues, greys, and pale pinks he captured on canvas. In the Arts Bar, even a non-alcoholic cocktail—the Britannia 1201—pays homage to his Grand Canal paintings.
More Than Decoration
What makes The St. Regis Venice remarkable is that art here is not treated as mere decoration. Guests sip from Berengo glasses, pass beneath Ai Weiwei’s chandelier, or watch light fracture through Simon Berger’s portraits. The hotel becomes less a container for art than a stage upon which art plays out. This approach also reconnects the property to Venice itself. Murano glassmaking is a tradition as old as the Republic, yet often relegated to tourist trinkets. By commissioning Berengo Studio to bring glass into a new century, through sculpture, installation, and even cocktail glassware, the hotel honors that lineage while insisting on its contemporary relevance.
A Curated Experience of Venice
Every corner of Venice feels like a museum. Yet, The St. Regis Venice distinguishes itself as curator. The property channels Monet’s historic gaze, invites contemporary voices such as Weiwei and Berger, and transforms the act of sipping a cocktail into an engagement with Venetian craft. For guests, the result is a multi-layered experience that combines with the marble floors and mirrored waters of the Grand Canal. It is art you can look at, art you can drink from, and art that stays with you long after you’ve left the lobby.
Photos courtesy of The St. Regis Venice, unless otherwise noted
