The museum is situated in a palazzo originally built in 1649 by the noble Bon family and was predominantly designed by the Venetian Baroque architect Baldassarre Longhena. The building was fully complete by 1758, when Giambattista Rezzonico’s younger brother, Carlo, Bishop of Padua, was elected Pope under the name Clement XIII: this was the peak of the family’s fortunes and the palace at San Barnaba celebrated the event in grand style. But by 1810 no family members were left. For the palace and its great heritage of art and history this was the beginning of a long, troubled period of sales and dispersions. Stripped of its furnishings, which were subdivided among the heirs and then sold, the palace passed through the hands of various owners in the 19th century; purchased by the English painter, Robert Barrett (“Pen”) Browning, it was used as a residence by his father, the writer Robert Browning, who died there.

It was subsequently taken over by Count Lionello Hirschell de Minerbi, a member of the Italian Parliament, who, after lengthy and complex negotiations, sold it to the Venice Town Council in 1935.

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