Bonhams Opens New York Flagship at Steinway Hall with Modern Cuban Painters

Bonhams inaugurated its new U.S. flagship at 111 West 57th Street - the landmarked Steinway Hall - on February 9, 2026, launching a monthlong presentation that places Cuban modernism at the center of its opening program. The 111 Gallery will host "Modern Cuban Painters from Havana to New York" from February 9 to March 6 in collaboration with Fundación Mariano Rodríguez, reuniting works shown in MoMA’s 1944 exhibition alongside paintings exhibited in influential New York galleries in the 1940s that have been out of public view for more than 80 years.

The move shifts Bonhams from its longtime Madison Avenue address into a restored 42,000-square-foot space inside Steinway Hall, the 1925 Beaux-Arts building by Warren & Wetmore. Under Bonhams’ custodianship the ornate domed rotunda, hand-painted mosaics, and marble arches have been restored and opened to the public after a long closure, with the new galleries situated beneath the pencil-thin residential tower that now looms over Billionaires’ Row.

The Cuban exhibition foregrounds a roster of mid-century names long tied to the 1944 New York moment. Artists listed across press materials include Wifredo/Wilfredo Lam, Mariano Rodríguez, Amelia Peláez, Mario Carreño, and Cundo Bermúdez; press notes also record variation in Lam’s spelling across outlets. Bonhams presents the show as both a curatorial reunion and a scholarly revisit to the moment Cuban modernism broke through U.S. audiences. "The historical framing gives the show real weight and underscores Bonhams's push into scholarship as well as sales," a contemporaneous analysis observed.

Programming in Steinway Hall pairs the Cuban presentation with a thematic atrium display titled "Striking a Chord," built around a 1910 Steinway & Sons Model B Grand Piano. Observer reporting and Bonhams’ release note that the piano "was played by Elton John during the recording of his landmark 1974 album Caribou, including the seminal single Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me." The instrument will be displayed during opening celebrations with live performances and will be offered in Bonhams’ online "Masters of Pop" sale running April 23 - May 7, 2026, with an estimate of $250,000–$350,000. Observer copy also indicates the atrium piano is accompanied by modern and contemporary masterworks, though one listed item in that description appears truncated in available excerpts.

Bonhams’ February schedule extends beyond Cuban modernism. The house will preview works from dealer Evan Lobel’s collection - including pieces by Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, Karl Springer, and Stephen Rolfe Powell and a diamond-dust Andy Warhol portrait of Sid Bass - and present "Heavyweights & Headliners: Legends in Sports and Rock," featuring George Kalinsky’s collection. A major Osman Hamdi Bey work will be on view in New York from February 9–12 prior to its March 25 sale at New Bond Street, and highlights from Bonhams’ February online sales - Modern & Contemporary Cuban Art Online and Modern & Contemporary Art Online - will be on display throughout the month.

Bonhams frames the relocation as a strategic cultural and commercial expansion after strong 2025 results, including $970 million in global sales and HK$810 million achieved in Hong Kong. Lilly Chan, managing director of Bonhams U.S., summarized that the move is intended to "bring together exhibitions, auctions, and public programming in a far more expansive and meaningful way," calling the new Steinway Hall flagship "a defining moment for Bonhams" and a public cultural destination for the city.