Eykyn Maclean will debut a London gallery space this February with a show of Cy Twombly works from the collection of the late dealer Ileana Sonnabend. The gallery, formed in 2006 by former Christie’s experts Christopher Eykyn and Nicholas Maclean, debuted their 67th Street space in 2010 with the show “Inside Giacometti’s Studio – An Intimate Portrait.”
“Cy Twombly: Works from the Sonnabend Collection” features all 11 Twombly works owned by Sonnabend. The works come to the gallery through Ileana Sonnabend’s son, who is friendly with Eykyn Maclean director Kristy Bryce, Mr. Maclean told Gallerist, so none are for sale. He said the gallery wanted to use the show to demonstrate the breadth of their dealings.
“We wanted partly to be able to tell people that actually it’s not just classic and modern that we specialize in,” Mr. Maclean said from London. “We also work with a lot of post-war artists. Twombly, remember, is an artist who’s very much in the public eye here, after the show last year at the Tate. It seems to be a good place to start.”
Following Sonnabend’s death in 2007, her heirs sold some $600 million in art from the collection, which was estimated to be worth over $1 billion all together. The New York Times reported that Franck Giraud, Lionel Pissarro and Philippe Ségalot sold some $400 million to private collectors, while a second group of works, all Andy Warhols, was sold to Gagosian Gallery for $200 million.
