All Venice likes to guess at what goes on behind the blank white walls of the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, a curiously truncated structure that jealous city officials stopped at mid-construction in the 18th century for fear that it would dwarf the city hall across the way. Up from the gondola landing stands Sculptor Marino Marini's strident Angel of the City (1948), a youth on horseback equipped with a detachable phallus that is respectfully removed whenever the Patriarch of Venice floats by to bless the city. Inside the palazzo, behind a 12-ft., barbed-wire-topped wall, lies more than $2,000,000 worth of modern...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
