LARRY’S LIST — Episode 2 of 3

LARRY’S LIST is a platform dedicated to private collections, so this holiday series naturally takes us to hotels where art is more than decoration. Some are shaped by the collections of their owners; others have been conceived with artists, architects or curators from the beginning.

For the second episode, we head to Europe, where the relationship between hotels and art has a long history. Artists stayed, ate, drank and sometimes paid their bills with works. Wine estates became sculpture parks, historic villas turned into living galleries, and grand hotels began treating their walls as seriously as their rooms.

Here are ten European addresses where the art is a reason to book the room.

1. La Colombe d’Or, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France

Few hotels have a more genuine relationship with artists. The Roux family’s small auberge became a meeting place for artists and writers in the 1930s, with works sometimes exchanged for accommodation and meals. Over the decades, the collection grew to include Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Léger, Miró and Calder, among many others.
Today, the restaurant and hotel still feel less like a conventional display of art than a place where the works have simply become part of everyday life. Calder’s mobile above the pool is perhaps the most recognisable example.

Website: la-colombe-dor.com

2. Villa La Coste, Provence, France

Villa La Coste remains one of Europe’s most ambitious combinations of art, architecture, wine and hospitality. The estate covers around 600 acres, with vineyards, gardens, sculpture and architecture spread across the landscape.
The architectural programme includes major names such as Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and Oscar Niemeyer, while the art includes artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin. The result is somewhere between a vineyard, sculpture park and open-air architectural exhibition — with a hotel in the middle of it.

Website: villalacoste.com
Instagram: @villalacoste

3. The Fife Arms, Braemar, Scotland

The Fife Arms is the hotel project of Hauser & Wirth founders Iwan and Manuela Wirth, and their approach to collecting is visible everywhere. More than 16,000 artworks, antiques and objects are integrated throughout the 46-room property.
There are Picassos, a Lucian Freud portrait, works by Louise Bourgeois and numerous site-specific commissions. What makes the collection particularly interesting is the way contemporary art sits alongside Scottish history, local references and antiques. It feels collected rather than decorated. And perhaps it is hardly surprising that the hotel has such a strong art-world identity: it is owned by the founders of Hauser & Wirth.

Website: thefifearms.com
Instagram: @thefifearms

4. Domaine des Étangs, Charente, France

Domaine des Étangs is the quieter option on this list. Set within a vast historic estate in the Charente countryside, it was developed by collector Garance Primat as a place where contemporary art and nature could exist together. The 13th-century château sits within 2,500 acres of forest, meadows, gardens and lakes, with art woven throughout the property. Works and installations are integrated into the landscape and historic buildings, while the former dairy barn houses La Laiterie, an on-site gallery. The experience is less about ticking off famous names and more about discovering art while moving through the estate.

Website: auberge.com/domaine-des-etangs
Instagram: @domainedesetangs

5. The Dolder Grand, Zurich, Switzerland

The Dolder Grand brings contemporary art into the setting of a classic European grand hotel. Its collection now comprises more than 100 works, including pieces by internationally recognised artists, with Andy Warhol’s enormous Big Retrospective Painting among the most prominent. The result is an interesting contrast: a historic luxury hotel, but with an art collection that is deliberately contemporary and substantial rather than simply decorative.

Website: thedoldergrand.com
Instagram: @thedoldergrand

6. Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà, Verona, Italy

Villa Amistà is a 16th-century Venetian villa near Verona that has been transformed into one of Italy’s most distinctive art hotels. The contemporary art collection was developed with designer Alessandro Mendini and collector and hotel owner Dino Facchini.
More than 200 works are displayed across the rooms, common areas and gardens, including site-specific installations, paintings and sculptures. The pleasure is in the collision: Renaissance and Baroque architecture on one side, outspoken contemporary art and design on the other.

Website: byblosarthotel.com
Instagram: @byblos_art_hotel

7. Hotel Arts Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Hotel Arts has one of the more substantial hotel art collections in Barcelona, with around 500 works by approximately 90 artists. Many were commissioned specifically for the property. The entrance is dominated by Xavier Corberó’s monumental El Rei i La Reina, while works are distributed throughout the hotel, including the guest floors and suites.
The building itself dates from the early 1990s and was designed by architect Bruce Graham as part of Barcelona’s transformation around the 1992 Olympic Games.

Website: hotelartsbarcelona.com
Instagram: @hotelartsbarcelona

8. Ambassade Hotel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Ambassade Hotel has quietly built one of the most remarkable hotel collections in Europe. Its focus is particularly strong on CoBrA, the post-war European avant-garde movement. The collection now contains more than 800 works, including artists such as Karel Appel, Asger Jorn and Pierre Alechinsky.
There is another collection here, too: more than 5,000 signed books by authors who have stayed at the hotel. It is a good reminder that an art hotel doesn’t necessarily need monumental architecture. Sometimes the depth of the collection is what makes the place interesting.

Website: ambassade-hotel.nl
Instagram: @ambassadehotel

9. At Six, Stockholm, Sweden

At Six was conceived with a particularly strong curatorial approach. The collection was curated by Sune Nordgren and includes works by Olafur Eliasson, Julian Opie, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Tacita Dean and Jaume Plensa, among others.
Plensa’s Mar Whispering dominates the main staircase, while works by Eliasson, LeWitt and others appear throughout the rooms and public spaces. It is one of those hotels where the art feels integrated into the architecture rather than added after the interiors were finished.

Website: hotelatsix.com
Instagram: @hotelatsix

10. Soho House Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Soho House Berlin occupies a building with an unusually complicated history. In 2025, to mark the property’s 15th anniversary, the hotel unveiled a newly curated collection of 75 works, with a particular emphasis on artists connected to Berlin.
The collection includes Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Thomas Demand and a number of younger Berlin-based artists. Damien Hirst’s large shark remains one of the best-known works in the building. The interesting thing about Berlin is the way the collection continues to evolve alongside the city’s contemporary art scene. Here, the history of the building and the history of Berlin itself are almost as important as the individual works on the walls.

Website: sohohouse.com/soho-house-berlin
Instagram: @sohohouse