Ileana Sonnabend and Nina Castelli Sundell Collections to Be Auctioned at Christies

Christies will be selling the collections of two of the most high prominent women in the 20th century art world: Nina Castelli Sundell and her mother Ileana Sonnabend.

Ileana Sonnabend was born Ileana Schapira to a Romanian Jewish father Mihail Schapira and a Viennese wife, Marianne Strate Felber. Ileana opened a gallery in Paris in 1962, and introduced Europeans to cutting edge American artists, such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and many others. In the 70s, her Sonnabend art gallery helped put SoHo on the map as one of the world’s major art centers.

Ileana and her daughter Nina began to familiarize Americans with European artists. Thee collection, which consists of Contemporary, Post-war and Arte Provera drawings, sculptures and paintings, will be displayed in San Francisco and Los Angeles prior to being auctioned in New York.