Night at the museum: the best art hotels to book now

With the flurry of art fairs coming up, there’s no shortage of masterworks to delight, inspire and seduce us. From Frieze Los Angeles 2025 and Contemporary African Art Fair Marrakech this February to Art Basel Hong Kong in March, the art world and its patrons have shown that if you love art, you must travel for it. So, if art is life and life is art, why not embody the avant-garde sensibility and turn even your sleeping quarters into a Gesamtkunstwerk (German for ‘total work of art’)? From contemporary art at New Hotel Athens to surrealism at the Broadwick Soho and modernism at The Fife Arms in Scotland, the following art hotels make sleeping feel like a night at the museum.

The best hotels for art lovers

The Broadwick Soho, London

The Broadwick Soho is a wild, decadent hotel in the heart of London that draws on 1970s-era discotheque opulence and smoky, velvet backrooms. Yet its maximalist design, masterminded by interior designer Martin Brudnizki (also behind the makeover of members’ club Annabel’s), is thoughtfully supplemented by an impressive art collection. Selected from hotel owner Noel Hayden’s personal collection, a series of 300 original artworks curated by Jonathan Brook match the Broadwick’s eclecticism, ranging from iconic masterworks like Andy Warhol’s shoe sketches, À la recherche du shoe perdu (1955), that were once part of David Bowie’s estate, and works by Francis Bacon and Bridget Riley, to flea-market finds and works by contemporary artists such as Faye Wei Wei and Casey Moore.

The Broadwick Soho is located at 20 Broadwick St, London W1F 8TH, United Kingdom; broadwicksoho.com

Château Voltaire

Smack dab in the centre of Paris’ 1st arrondissement, between Opéra and Tuileries, Thierry Gillier, founder of the French fashion brand Zadig & Voltaire, brought to life a five-star, 32-room hotel that feels as personal as the art on its walls. At Château Voltaire, works from Gillier’s personal collection dot the space – each room is unique, so you might wake up under a piece by Picasso or Cy Twombly, or see works by Marlene Dumas, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Stephen Shearer and Francis Picabia in the lobby and lounge. With artistic direction led by Franck Durand, and interior design by Festen, the mood is one of highly curated contemporary eclecticism with elements of elegant gothic design, in buildings that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Château Voltaire is located at 55 Rue Saint-Roch, 75001 Paris, France; chateauvoltaire.com

El Fenn, Marrakech

Co-owners Vanessa Branson (sister of Richard), Madeline Weinrib (and her husband Graham Head, president of ABC Carpet & Home), along with El Fenn’s creative director Jann Dobry have all had a hand in defining the hotel’s eclectic art and interiors that blend Marrakech style with bohemian luxury. As a collector and gallerist, Branson’s taste in art has appeared throughout El Fenn’s hallways since it opened in 2004: pieces by William Kentridge, Antony Gormley, Bridget Riley and David Shrigley remain on display. The hotel, whose name means ‘house of art’, remains closely tied to culture – many contemporary Moroccan artists, such as Hassan Hajjaj and Yto Barrada are featured in the space as well.

El Fenn is located at Derb Moulay Abdullah Ben Hezzian, 2, Marrakech 40000, Morocco; el-fenn.com

The Fife Arms, Braemar

When two of the art world’s most powerful players open a hotel, you know that the art collection will be worth the visit alone. Owned by Iwan and Manuela Wirth of the famed gallery Hauser & Wirth, The Fife Arms offers artwork to rival many major museums. A 19th-century Victorian coaching inn located in the picturesque village of Braemar in the Scottish Highlands, just about everything at the Fife Arms is extraordinary. Its jaw-dropping collection is made up of nearly 16,000 pieces that range from Pablo Picasso’s Mousquetaire Assis (1967) and Lucian Freud’s Child Portrait (1962) to a Louise Bourgeois spider sculpture, a painting by Gerhard Richter, and a piece by Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Younger. The Russell Sage-designed interiors incorporate Scottish heritage with tweed and tartan accents and antiques in keeping with the property’s history. Where else can you stay with two full-time art historians who were brought on board to research Scottish history, Victoriana and contemporary art?

The Fife Arms is located at Mar Rd, Braemar, Ballater AB35 5YN, United Kingdom; thefifearms.com

New Hotel, Athens

Owned by Cypriot Dakis Joannou, one of the world’s preeminent contemporary art collectors and founder of the Deste Foundation, the New Hotel in Athens is a hub for supporting and showcasing contemporary art. Revolving exhibitions feature contemporary artists from the Athenian scene, while 20 pieces from Joannou’s personal collection also dot the walls. Works by major artists such as Jenny Holzer, Laurie Simmons, Jeff Koons and Barbara Kruger are in the hotel’s permanent collection, and there's an installation by a Greek artist in every suite. For the bibliophile, 2,000 art books are on display in the hotel’s Art Lounge. Designed by Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana, the 79-room hotel with views of the Acropolis harkens back to classic Greek architecture but is infused with hand-selected luxury design details that nod to a forward-thinking, eclectic sensibility.

New Hotel, Athens is located at Filellinon 16, Athens 105 57, Greece; donkeyhotels.gr

Pompey Jamaica

Located in Portland Parish on Jamaica's north-east coast, Pompey is a private estate owned by American DJ and music producer Diplo, surrounded by dense rainforest on 50 acres of land. The brutalist complex designed by Freecell Architecture in collaboration with designer Gia Wolff is complemented by an art collection that includes work by artists such as Sofia Londoño, Pedro Reyes, Lucas Muñoz, Asafo Flag, Garnett Puett, Veronica Ryan and Vince Skelly. Composed of a main house, a music studio, a yoga studio, a spa and a lagoon, the interiors by Sara Nataf and Katelyn Hiden and landscape design by Geoponika provide a homely contrast to the stark concrete structure that seems to be swallowed up by its jungle surrounds – a metaphor for the hideaway that Diplo envisioned.

pompeyjamaica.com

Rhinoceros Roma

If having artwork on the walls of your hotel isn’t enough, how about sleeping above a gallery? Rhinoceros Roma in Rome’s ancient Velabro district – home to Fondazione Alda Fendi Esperimenti, the contemporary art foundation of Alda Fendi, youngest daughter of the Fendi family – allows just that. Restored by architect Jean Nouvel, the 17th-century palazzo houses 25 apartments that exude luxury with ultra-modern, Italian minimalist chic (think: lots of chrome and concrete floors). On the bottom floor, an art gallery hosts rotating exhibitions, including a partnership with the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg that has shown works by Picasso, El Greco and Michelangelo.

Rhinoceros Roma is located at Via del Velabro, 9, 00186 Rome, Italy; rhinocerosroma.com

Les Roches Rouges, Saint-Raphaël

Set on the splashy landscape of the French Riviera, Les Roches Rouges in Saint-Raphaël embodies classic Côte d’Azur style with minimalist furnishings that ooze elegance. Interior design studio Festen Architecture gave the hotel’s 1950s modernist architecture a fresh vision in sun-drenched colours reminiscent of vintage Mediterranean style. Antique dealers Hélène Breheret and Benjamin Desprez selected furniture from designers such as Pierre Charreau, Willy Guhl and Charlotte Perriand, while sculptor Guy Bareff created custom Alpilles terracotta wall lamps. American artist Rosemarie Auberson made colour-block paintings based on a palette of blue tones, while artist Caroline Denervaud’s colourful abstractions add a light-hearted energy to the space.

Les Roches Rouges, Saint-Raphaël is located at 90 Bd de la 36ème division du Texas, 83530 Saint-Raphaël, France; beaumier.com