In the Gran Salone of the St Regis Venice, there is a white Murano-glass chandelier. At first glance, all is as you might expect – the beautiful contemporary piece features sculpted flowers of the type found growing in the Venice lagoon. But then the eye catches something strange. Here are glass handcuffs. And surely not…a single hand giving the viewer the finger.

This statement artwork by Ai Weiwei, a regular at the St Regis, is just one of many surprises that make a stay at the hotel memorable. The Chinese artist clearly used the commission to comment on his incarceration by the authorities in his home country. And the hotel staff will tell you that the chandelier is a companion piece to a work in black housed across the water on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in a Palladio-designed church. This piece is altogether more dark, featuring skeletons, internal organs and surveillance cameras. All executed in Murano glass, which is, of course, a signature product of Venice.

Ai Weiwei is just one of the many artists whose work can be found in this beautifully restored hotel, formerly the Grand Hotel Britannia, which comprises five Venetian palazzos. Outside, overlooking the hotel’s terrace on the Grand Canal, are four figures – Julian Opie’s Running in Venice sculptures. Inside, there are contemporary works by an eclectic group of artists: Tony Cragg, Gregor Hildebrandt, Erwin Wurm, Esther Stocker, Rosa Brueckel and Gregor Schmoll.

The original hotel opened in the same year as the first Biennale art exhibition, and it has proved popular with artists ever since, boasting JMW Turner and John Singer Sargent among its guests, not to mention Claude Monet, who painted San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk while here.

The interior of the modernist gem that is the St Regis hotel

Entirely refurbished in 2019, the new incarnation was inspired by the work of local Modernist architect Carlo Scarpa. In fact, you can book a tour of Scarpa’s work in the city and its environs as one of several artists’ tours the hotel provides. The St Regis even has a resident artist programme, and the first holder of this post, Olivier Masmonteil, was commissioned to create pieces for the Monet and Presidential Suites, as well as the Gran Salone. Here, he has produced four interpretations of masterpieces by Tintoretto that are at the Palazzo Ducale. A partnership with Berengo Studio, the glass specialists who executed Ai Weiwei’s two giant chandeliers, sees the tradition of Venetian glassmaking showcased through the display of new works by artists in Murano glass, as well as a series of artist-themed cocktail glasses in the bar to complement a selection of cocktails (including a Monet, Dalí and Banksy). These are served in the Arts Bar at the St Regis, a rare late-night drinking venue in this city, which boasts a Carlo Scarpa-inspired wooden bar cabinet.

The place’s drinking credentials are only heightened by the fact that Giuseppe Cipriani, the bartender who created Venice’s famous Harry’s Bar, also worked in the hotel. Sitting here, or in Gio’s, the property’s flawless restaurant, it’s fun to imagine what guests such as Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Sigmund Freud might have made of this newly realised Modernist retreat. Order yourself a Carlo Scarpa custom cocktail, served in a specially created glass (Murano, of course) that pays homage to his love of interlocking circles and allow your mind to wander.

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