Art Relieves the Loneliness of Hotels

Newsweek takes a tour of the two continents to show the scale of a new trend in art hotels:

Hong Kong’s Langham Place hotel owns a collection of more than 1,500 pieces, all created by artists from China and spread throughout the hotel by theme. The lobby is dedicated to sculpture, including Jian Shuo’s ironic Red Guard: Going Forward! Making Money! and Yin Hong’s Meditation; the seventh and eighth floors are devoted to pieces that convey celebration, such as Exercise by Pei Jing. Free guided 30-minute tours of the collection are available to hotel guests and outside visitors.

The public art gallery inside the Semiramis Hotel in Athens features such works as the Jeff Koons’s sculpture Tulips; VBGDW, a photograph by Vanessa Bee-croft; and Su-En Wong’s painting Perky Peach. Located in the leafy neighborhood of Kifisia, just 10 minutes from the hectic crush of downtown Athens, the Semiramis gallery is open to guests all day.

Europe’s art’otel chain remains true to its name. With locations in Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden and Budapest—and more branches to come in Cologne, Amsterdam and London—these properties are essentially galleries with sleeping quarters in them. […] Berlin’s city-center west location, for instance, holds 221 original works of pop art by Andy Warhol spread throughout the small building, giving each corner a distinctively hip feel.