Peggy Guggenheim - The Life of an Art Addict (Paperback, New Ed)

"Often touching and always richly entertaining, like its subject"
HILARY SPURLING, 'Daily Telegraph'

Peggy Guggenheim's tempestuous life spanned the most exciting and volatile years of the twentieth century, and she lived it to the full. 'Mrs Guggenheim, how many husbands have you had?', she was once asked. 'Do you mean my own, or other people's?'.

It was among the American expatriate bohemian set in Paris in the 1930's that the young heiress began to make her mark in the art world. Her many lovers included Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst (whom she later married), Yves Tanguy and Roland Penrose. Yet real love always seemed to elude her.

In the later 1930's Peggy set up one of the first galleries of modern art in London, building up a magnificent collection of works by Picasso, Magritte, Miro and Brancusi, and buying paintings from artists fleeing the Nazis. Escaping from Vichy France to New York, she was hugely influential in assisting the new American abstract Impressionist movement (in particular, Jackson Polluck). After the war she returned to Europe, living in Venice until the end of her life. Today her memory is enshrined in the world-famous palazzo that houses her collection.

Meticulously researched, filled with colourful incident and a distinguished cast list, Anton Gill's biography reveals the inner drives of a remarkable woman and an indefatigable patron.

"Anton Gill tells this extraordinary story with vigour and panache"
SELINA HASTINGS, 'Sunday Telegraph'