At the intersection where the Grand Canal and the Giudecca Canal meet, sits a triangular museum that has greeted many seafarers since its completion in 1682. The Punta della Dogana, overlooking St. Mark’s Basin, is a contemporary art museum that used to be the Sea Customs House. Atop the building sits a bronze sculpture showing two statues of Atlas holding up a golden globe, with Giuseppe Benoni’s Fortune standing on top of it, turning with every dramatic gust of the wind. The building was abandoned and left empty for several decades till a recent restoration funded by a French billionaire resurrected it and brought it back to glory. Renowned Japanese architect, Takao Ando, led the €20,000,000 project that took 14 months but it is sufficient to say that the museum that stands today is a splendid union of the past and the present.