About
Ileana Sonnabend (1914–2007) was one of the most influential gallerists and champions of contemporary art in the 20th century. Born Ileana Schapira in Bucharest, Romania, she developed a lifelong passion for art that would shape both American and European cultural landscapes. After moving to New York in the 1940s, she became deeply involved in the emerging postwar art scene, first alongside her former husband Leo Castelli and later with her husband Michael Sonnabend.
In 1962, Sonnabend opened her first gallery in Paris, introducing groundbreaking American movements—most notably Pop Art—to European audiences. When she established the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in 1971, she continued her pioneering approach, presenting avant-garde work ranging from Conceptual Art and Minimalism to Arte Povera and Neo-Geo. Her discerning eye and unwavering support helped launch and sustain the careers of many of the era’s most important artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons, and numerous European innovators.
Celebrated for her insight, conviction, and international vision, Ileana Sonnabend built a legacy that continues to define the trajectory of contemporary art. Through her galleries, her collection, and her decades-long commitment to artists, she reshaped the global art world and remains a towering figure in its history.
WHO WE ARE
The Sonnabend Collection Foundation, based in New York, was established in 2008 with the purpose of preserving, managing, and disseminating the important art collection assembled by Ileana Sonnabend and Michael Sonnabend, in collaboration with Antonio Homem and Nina Sundell. It is a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)), dedicated to the arts and culture, and seeks to make the works of the collection accessible to the general public.
The mission of the Foundation focuses on lending works to museums and educational institutions worldwide, thereby enhancing the study and visibility of modern and post-war art. Through collaborations with leading organizations in Asia, Europe, America, and South America, the Foundation contributes to international artistic exchange and broadens access to one of the most emblematic bodies of work of the post-war period.
The collection includes landmark works of Pop Art, Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art, with artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis, Jeff Koons, among many others.
As of November 29, 2025, 96 works from the Foundation’s Collection will be exhibited in Mantua, Italy, at a new museum dedicated to the Foundation, which will bear the name Sonnabend Collection Mantova. This new permanent venue will serve as a central reference point for the presentation and study of the Collection in Europe.
PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER
Antonio Homem
Antonio Homem was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1939. In 1956, he left Portugal for Switzerland where he studied engineering at the ETH in Zürich, but his interests were always deeply rooted in the arts. In 1968, he began working at the Galerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris, marking the start of a long career collaborating closely with Ileana and Michael Sonnabend.
In 1970, when the Sonnabend Gallery opened its first New York space on Madison Avenue, Antonio and Ileana Sonnabend began traveling regularly between Paris and New York to oversee both locations.
In the fall of 1971, the Sonnabend Gallery opened a pioneering new space in SoHo, at 420 West Broadway in a building shared together with three other art galleries, Leo Castelli, John Weber and Andre Emmerlich.
The New York gallery left SoHo in 2000 and relocated to 536 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, where it continued its exhibitions. Antonio remained the director of the gallery after Ileana Sonnabend’s death in 2007, continuing to oversee its operations until it closed in 2014.
In 2009, Antonio founded, together with Nina Sundell, the Sonnabend Collection Foundation, dedicated to preserving and presenting a collection of works from the early 60s till the end of the century.
ON VIEW
On Saturday, November 29, 2025, the new museum of contemporary art Sonnabend Collection Mantova, one of the most important private collections of the twentieth century, opens in Mantova's Palazzo della Ragione.
