THE GRAND MASTER

Where: Rome Cavalieri Hilton, Rome

The draw: Uffizi-worthy paintings—in a hotel lobby

The scene: Roman ladies who lunch and Black Card–carrying businessmen

Picture this: The Italian art community was left hanging in 2006 when a mystery buyer at Sotheby's snapped up a Tiepolo triptych—originally commissioned for a palace in the Veneto in the 1720s—for $8 million. (The canvases would have been worth a few million more had Italian law allowed them to be sold on the international market.) The masterpieces surfaced six months later—in the lobby of Rome's Cavalieri Hilton. They join the already-impressive line-up of Old Masters assembled around the hotel and in every room by secretive owner Guido Terruzzi, whose entire collection is conservatively valued at $700 million. Standouts on show at the hotel's permanent collection include Venetian landscapes by the 18th-century artist Giuseppe Zais (over the concierge desk, pictured) and the rococo fantasies of Giuseppe Bazzani (near the lobby bar). Word is that Terruzzi is thinking of setting up a foundation to house his astonishing hoard of Old Masters. For now, though, you can still enjoy them inside the hotel: Book a suite and you can even slumber under one of the smaller masterpieces—or the stash of Warhols in the sexy penthouse bedroom.

Cavalieri Hilton
Tel: 39 06 3509 2031
Doubles from $427