A Venetian palazzo that entranced John Ruskin and was painted by Monet is for sale — but beware, it’s cursed
Palazzo Dario, on Venice's fabled Grand Canal, is an architectural gem, but new owners will have to grapple with its unfortunate past.
Giovanni Dario (1414-1494), ambassador of the Republic of Venice, hailed from Crete, one of the floating city’s countless colonies. His grasp of the Greek language was key to his success — chiefly negotiating a peace deal with the Ottomans, on behalf of the Signoria of Venice. He was, for his efforts, given a substantial amount of money which he spent on a palazzo on Venice’s Grand Canal.
Palazzo Dario, built at the tail end of the 15th century on top of an existing Gothic palazzo, is split over four floors with a ground floor (accessible both from the Grand Canal and the street) and garden, two noble floors and a third with bedrooms. It is currently for sale, price on application, with Christie’s International Real Estate.
Venice's houses are unlike any other domestic buildings anywhere in the world, erected over millions of oak and larch piles driven into the lagoon’s mud flats. And though there are 200 lining the fabled waterway alone, the appearance of Palazzo Dario on the market represents a rare opportunity to buy an intact one because plenty have been split into apartments or turned into hotels and museums.
Despite extensive renovation works in the 18th century, plenty still survives from Dario’s time, including a Moorish fountain on the first piano nobile and the magnificent facade decorated with circular polychrome marble inlays. The English art critic John Ruskin was particularly entranced with and wrote about the palace's Gothic marble-encrusted oculi.
Other inhabitants include Dario’s daughter, Marietta, whose father-in-law owned the neighbouring Palazzo Barbaro Wolkoff, Countess de la Baume-Pluvinel, a French aristocrat and writer, and Kit Lambert, producer and manager of The Who. Unfortunately, the large majority of the palazzo’s owners, or would-be owners, were struck down long before their time or in some kind of gruesome manner leading to it becoming nicknamed ‘The Cursed Palace’. Marietta committed suicide because of her husband’s financial failings. One was murdered; another incapacitated by a car crash. Lambert died, falling down a set of stairs in London, shortly after purchasing the building. In the 1990s, director Woody Allen expressed an interest in buying it, but was perhaps put off by the litany of disasters. You have been warned.
Somewhat more happily, in 1908, Claude Monet made paintings of the front of the building from the Canal; the canvases reside at the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Museum of Art of Wales.
On the ground floor, there is an cavernous hall with columns, a marble well and large fireplace — and an ‘elegant’ marble staircase that leads to the first piano nobile and its fountain. There are similar spaces on the second noble floor decked out in Bevilacqua fabrics and antique Murano chandeliers. The third floor boasts a loggia terrace, as well as the palazzo’s bedrooms.
The land side of Palazzo Dario borders Campiello Barbaro, a small square planted with trees. The Basilica Santa Maria della Salute, one of the most popular churches in Venice that stands sentry on the Canal’s southern entrance, is a three minute walk away; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is just one. Guggenheim — who lived in Venice from 1948 until her death in 1979 — famously claimed to have slept with more than 1,000 men (including Lambert despite the fact that he was openly gay).
Palazzo Dario is for sale with Christie’s — see more details.
