It’s a brisk spring morning in Venice and Penelope Seidler is standing, statuesque, on the Piazza San Marco as the city slowly comes to life around her. A white-aproned waiter sleepily surveys an almost empty terrace. A street vendor sets up his trinket stall. Both are anticipating the almost biblical swarm of tourists that will soon descend on the public square.

Behind Seidler, an ochre-hued banner draped across the Renaissance facade of the new San Marco Art Centre announces an exhibition dedicated to the work of her late husband, the modernist architect Harry Seidler.