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 Mantua’s Palace of Reason. An exhibition itinerary, divided into eleven rooms, traces the tastes and interests cultivated by Ileana Sonnabend through her commitment to and support of movements and artists that marked the visual culture of the twentieth century. Among the exhibits are works of American art, such as Jasper Johns’ Figure 8 (1958), Roy Lichtenstein’s Little Aloha (1962), Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup (1962), and Robert Rauschenberg’s Kite. Alongside these are significant Pop Art works signed by Jim Dine, James Rosenquist, and Tom Wesselmann that dialogue with contemporary research by Italian artists such as Michelangelo Pistoletto and Mario Schifano.
The itinerary continues with works from the movements of the 1960s and 1970s: from the Minimalism of Donald Judd and Robert Morris to the sculptural experiments of Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra, to Arte Povera, introduced by Sonnabend in New York, with masters such as Giovanni Anselmo, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini and Gilberto Zorio. Sonnabend’s great interest in photography and performance emerges through collaborations with artists of different generations, including Bernd & Hilla Becher, Luigi Ontani, Vito Acconci, Gilbert & George, Candida Höfer and Matthias Schaller. Finally, German painting of the 1980s, with Jörg Immendorff, Anselm Kiefer and A.R. Penck, along with the American research of Jeff Koons and Haim Steinbach.
The Sonnabend Collection grew out of the vision of influential art dealer Ileana Sonnabend, her husband Michael, and adopted son Antonio Homem, and is a vital record of the major art movements of the second half of the last century. Through their galleries in Paris and New York, the Sonnabends played a decisive role in the dissemination of American art in Europe and European artists in the United States.
The initiative is sponsored by the City of Mantua in collaboration with the Sonnabend Collection Foundation and Marsilio Arte.
The exhibition project is curated by unostudio. A partner in the initiative is BPER Banca. The official website and dedicated social channels will soon be online: www.sonnabendmantova.it
Statements
“On November 29, a new museum is born in Mantua, a UNESCO World Heritage city and the first Italian Capital of Culture, in the renovated Palace of Reason, right in the heart of the city,” said Mayor Mattia Palazzi. “This is an international museum of contemporary art dedicated to the prestigious Sonnabend Collection in New York. Bringing one of the world’s leading private collections of contemporary art to the city of the Renaissance, of Giulio Romano, Mantegna and Leon Battista Alberti, celebrating the visionary figure of Ileana Sonnabend, is the beginning of a new chapter for our city. We have worked for a long time, together with the Sonnabend Collection Foundation led by Antonio Homem, artistic director Mario Codognato and Marsilio Arte, to bring to life a project that is strategic for us. With this museum, Mantua fully enters the world of contemporary art and places itself on the map of the European cultural Grand Tour. What we will inaugurate on November 29 is not just a museum, but a fundamental building block for the future of Mantua. We want the whole city and all art lovers to become protagonists of this journey.”
“Throughout my life and throughout my long and exceptional journey with Ileana and Michael,” said Antonio Homem, president and co-founder together with Nina Sundell of the Sonnabend Collection Foundation, “we have always shared with others our passion, our enthusiasm, and our belief in art and in the commitment and foresight of artists. That is why I am happy to be able to share this, as a great visual biography, in this magnificent city, which is itself a wonderful work of art.”
“Michael and Ileana Sonnabend have always had a deep connection with Italy, which they knew and loved with a unique and surprising gaze,” added artistic director of the Sonnabend Collection Mantova Mario Codognato. “For this reason it is particularly significant that the extraordinary collection they built finds a home today in our country, in Mantua. Michael had a knowledge and passion for Dante that was truly out of the ordinary, and the fact that this collection is housed in a 13th-century building seems almost like a written destiny. Ileana, on the other hand, was a decisive figure for many Italian artists in the postwar period, helping to make them known and appreciated in the United States: this tribute to her figure and work therefore represents a natural chapter in her own history.”
Mario Codognato will also moderate the meeting A Hidden Soul between Science and Art, scheduled for Friday, September 5, at 2:30 p.m. in the Palazzo San Sebastiano/MACA Museum in Mantua during Festivaletteratura. Protagonists of the dialogue will be physicist Guido Tonelli and artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, among the big names discovered by Ileana Sonnabend and present within the Sonnabend Collection Mantova.
Luca De Michelis, CEO of Marsilio Arte and Marsilio Editori, said, “We are proud to announce the opening of the Sonnabend Collection Mantova, a project of extraordinary cultural relevance carried out with commitment and foresight together with the City of Mantova. For the first time, the Sonnabend Collection will be presented within a dedicated venue, offering the public the unique opportunity to admire an artistic heritage of exceptional value, in a historical and prestigious context that reflects the city’s tradition and identity. This is also a significant milestone for Marsilio Arte, which with this initiative reaffirms its commitment to the enhancement of national and international contemporary art, consolidating relationships between institutions, artists and the public. With the launch of this project, Mantua becomes an essential stop for those who want to learn more about and get to know closely the great protagonists of Pop Art and the most influential artists of the 20th century.”
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| Sonnabend Collection Mantua opens, new museum dedicated to one of the most important private collections of the 20th century |
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