Antonio Homem, president and co-founder of the Sonnabend Collection Foundation, offers his perspective on Sonnabend Collection Mantova, the new contemporary art museum in Mantua’s Palazzo della Ragione, dedicated to the extraordinary collection of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend

The story narrated by Antonio Homem, president and co-founder of the Sonnabend Collection Foundation and adopted son of Ileana and Michael Sonnabend, evokes not only a personal history, but also a communion of intentions and perspectives on art that emerges clearly from the Sonnabend Collection Mantova project, which became a reality in November 2025 with the inauguration of the museum named after the exceptional collection in the setting of the Palazzo della Ragione.
The chronological and thematic exhibition, curated by Homem himself and artistic director Mario Codognato, evokes, through more than ninety works, the pioneering attitude of a collector and gallery owner capable of anticipating trends in contemporary art.

Video: © Zampediverse

Cover photo: Antonio Homem at the Sonnabend Collection Mantova © Zampediverse

BIO
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.

https://www.sonnabendmantova.it