Louise Nevelson: Lost and Found, Again
Louise Nevelson (1899–1988) was best known for her often-monumental, monochromatic sculptures intricately built up from found wooden objects.
In 1978, Nevelson's 32-foot wide commissioned work, Sky Gate, New York was dedicated overlooking the lobby of the World Trade Center. That piece, along with so much else, was lost on September 11, 2001.
The Art Authority Museum is proud to have worked with granddaughter Maria Nevelson and the Louise Nevelson Foundation to make this small part of what was lost found again.
On December 12, 2025, forty-seven years to the day after its original 1978 dedication, we unveiled and re-dedicated the rebuilt version of Sky Gate, New York. As befitted the times and our Museum, that re-dedication was online through Zoom and honored not just the sculptor and the sculpture, but also those who helped in its creation, dedication, preservation and remembrance.
Maria Nevelson was introduced by Art Authority Museum founding director Alan Oppenheimer. Also speaking were participants from the original dedication, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Here's a brief summary of the event:
The re-dedicated Sky Gate, New York also serves as the cornerstone of a new ongoing exhibition, "Louise Nevelson: Lost and Found, Again." The exhibition traces Nevelson's career from her early paintings through her defining assemblages to her capstone World Trade Center work.
Using many of the same technologies applied in the reconstruction of Sky Gate, New York, the exhibition also includes other "lost" Nevelson works. Many of these have not been destroyed, but have been inaccessible due to their size or other factors that have prevented their display to the general public.
By its transcendent nature, the Art Authority Museum allows us to make an unlimited number of these previously hidden-away works fully accessible worldwide, in our familiar museum setting. And that is what we plan to do.