“Louise Nevelson: Lost and Found, Again” brings back art destroyed in World Trade Center
Exhibition at Art Authority Museum opens with December 12 re-dedication

December 5, 2025.

Pioneering sculptor Louise Nevelson’s monumental work “Sky Gate, New York” was dedicated overlooking the World Trade Center lobby on December 12, 1978. It was lost, along with so much else, on September 11, 2001. Forty-seven years later, the Art Authority Museum has worked with granddaughter Maria Nevelson to bring this small part of that history back. The meticulously reconstructed sculpture will be re-dedicated at noon New York time this December 12, as part of the opening of the Art Authority Museum exhibition “Louise Nevelson: Lost and Found, Again.”

The Art Authority Museum, best experienced through Apple Vision Pro, has been working with Maria Nevelson since opening in 2024. As befits the Museum, and the reconstructed masterwork, the re-dedication ceremony will be online through Zoom. Museum founding director Alan Oppenheimer and granddaughter Maria Nevelson will co-host the event, with planned speakers including attendees of the 1978 dedication, employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and representatives of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

“I very much regret never getting to see my grandmother’s original work in the World Trade Center,” said Maria Nevelson, “Seeing it for the first time in the Art Authority Museum was quite the experience for me. I am so happy we’re able to bring this work back into the world."

“It is an honor that transcends our Museum to be able to work with Maria and others to bring back this small but significant part of what we thought was lost forever,” said Oppenheimer. “And we’re not stopping there.”

The exhibition “Louise Nevelson: Lost and Found, Again” features the rebuilt “Sky Gate, New York” as its centerpiece, but also serves as the unveiling of a bigger initiative which Nevelson and Oppenheimer have been working on: finding, again, many other Louise Nevelson pieces which have been hidden away and essentially lost to the world. As such, the show adds versions of two new Nevelsons to the Museum's collection: “Sky Cathedral” from MoMA, and “Black Chord” from the Whitney. With many more to follow.

The Zoom re-dedication ceremony and exhibition opening will be free of charge, but an advanced reservation is required, which can be requested at https://artauthority.musuem/nevelson .

Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) was a pioneering American sculptor best known for her monumental, monochromatic wooden assemblages, often made from wooden objects she found around her hometown New York City. Her granddaughter Maria has carried on Louise’s legacy by establishing and running the Louise Nevelson Foundation (louisenevelsonfoundation.org)

The Art Authority Museum is a new type of immersive art museum, both familiar and transcendent. Fully accessible 24/7, the Museum displays thousands of classic works of art, from pre-Renaissance through Modern times. Best experienced through Apple Vision Pro, the Museum is also available on iPad, iPhone and Macintosh. The Museum’s website is artauthority.museum.