Farewell to Antonio Homem, president of the Sonnabend Collection.

Antonio Homem, president and co-founder of the Sonnabend Collection Foundation, a leading figure in a long journey that intertwined collecting, research and cultural planning, has passed away at the age of 86. The international contemporary art world loses a central figure in the preservation and dissemination of one of the most important private collections of the second half of the 20th century.

The adopted son of the two celebrated gallery owners Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, Homem dedicated his life to the preservation of a legacy that has made a decisive mark on the history of contemporary art. Indeed, the Sonnabend collection, built since the 1960s, is considered one of the most relevant testimonies to the artistic research that developed between Europe and the United States in the second half of the twentieth century. Through his work, Homem has helped consolidate and disseminate this legacy, making it accessible to scholars, institutions and the public.

Born in Lisbon in 1939, Homem moved to Switzerland in 1956, where he studied engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Despite his technical training, his interests from the beginning remained oriented toward the arts, a field in which he would find his professional dimension.

The decisive transition came in 1968, when he began working at Galerie Ileana Sonnabend in Paris. It is the beginning of a collaboration destined to last decades, during which Homem works alongside Ileana and Michael Sonnabend in the development of an exhibition and collection project that will have a profound impact on the international art scene. In 1970, with the opening of the Sonnabend Gallery in New York on Madison Avenue, Homem and Ileana Sonnabend began moving regularly between Paris and the United States, closely following the activities of the two venues.

A particularly significant moment is the 1971 opening of the SoHo space at 420 West Broadway, in a context then pioneering for the art gallery system. In that building, shared with the likes of Leo Castelli, John Weber, and André Emmerich, a new geography of contemporary New York art was defined, one destined to profoundly influence the market and exhibition dynamics of the following decades.

In 2000 the gallery moved to Chelsea, to 536 West 22nd Street, confirming its ability to adapt to the city’s urban and cultural transformations. After the death of Ileana Sonnabend in 2007, Homem took over as director of the gallery, continuing to oversee its activities until its closure in 2014. It is a phase in which his role becomes even more central to the management and preservation of the collection. In 2009, together with Nina Sundell, he founded the Sonnabend Collection Foundation, with the aim of ensuring the preservation and enhancement of a body of works covering a time span from the 1960s to the end of the century. The foundation thus becomes a key instrument for the transmission of this heritage to future generations, through exhibitions, loans and collaborations with international institutions.

One of the most significant moments of its recent commitment was the birth of the Sonnabend Collection Mantova, inaugurated in November 2025 in the restored spaces of the Palazzo della Ragione. The project, the result of a collaboration between the City of Mantua, Sonnabend Collection Foundation and Marsilio Arte, represented a crucial step in the history of the collection, opening to the public a selection of works that until then had been kept in the private sphere.

Together with his son Phokion Potamianos, the foundation’s treasurer, Homem wholeheartedly supported the creation of this space, conceived not only as an exhibition venue, but as a place for study, discussion and insight. The collection presented in Mantua includes works by some of the absolute protagonists of twentieth-century art, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Gilbert & George, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Robert Rauschenberg, Mario Schifano and Andy Warhol.

The bond between Homem and the Lombard city was consolidated over time, even to the point of being awarded honorary citizenship by the City of Mantua, a recognition that testifies to the depth of the relationship built with the territory. Antonio Homem’s passing thus marks the end of a long season, but he leaves behind a model of cultural management based on continuity between collecting, research and sharing. The Sonnabend Collection Mantua, one of his last projects, today represents a concrete testimony of this commitment, destined to continue over time as a meeting place for works, scholars and the public.

“Antonio Homem, an honorary citizen of Mantua,” says Mayor Mattia Palazzi, “believed deeply in the Sonnabend Collection Mantova project. His vision and generosity will remain an integral part of this space and the bond we have built together. In his recent stay in the city, accompanied by his son Phokion, he confirmed a living and sincere relationship with our community.”

Words of condolence also came from Luca De Michelis, CEO of Marsilio Arte: “With Antonio Homem we shared a cultural project of great value and international scope. We will always remember his passion and dedication to making the extraordinary legacy of the Sonnabend Collection accessible to the public.” The director of the Sonnabend Collection Mantua, Mario Codognato, adds, “Antonio guarded and passed on the cultural legacy of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend with intelligence and sensitivity. His passing leaves a great void in the international art community.”

Farewell to Antonio Homem, president of the Sonnabend Collection.

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