{"id":20872,"date":"2026-02-08T13:16:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T13:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/08\/how-the-donum-estate-cultivated-a-world-class-sculpture-garden\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T13:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T13:17:15","slug":"how-the-donum-estate-cultivated-a-world-class-sculpture-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/02\/08\/how-the-donum-estate-cultivated-a-world-class-sculpture-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Donum Estate Cultivated a World-Class Sculpture Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At Donum Estate, art, wine, and land are conceived as a single living system shaped by stewardship, regeneration, and long-term vision. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As California\u2019s viticulture has matured\u2014understood not merely as agricultural production but as a cultural, scientific and ecological practice\u2014a generation of wineries in Sonoma and Napa began to reimagine the estate itself as a space where wine, hospitality and contemporary art could coexist, grounded in terroir-driven storytelling and aesthetic ambition. The Donum<\/a> Estate was among the first to pioneer this convergence in a deeply intentional way, forging a sensory connection between land, wine and art.<\/p>\n

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The estate\u2019s name\u2014Donum, from the Latin for \u201cgift\u201d\u2014reflects its ethos. Everything produced here is considered a gift of this extraordinarily fertile land that must be stewarded and protected. Its history traces back to Anne Moller-Racke<\/a>, a German-born viticulturalist who came to California in 1981 and later led Buena Vista Winery, planting the estate\u2019s original vines. When the family sold Buena Vista in 2001, they kept the Carneros vineyards and renamed the property the Donum Estate. In 2011, Danish entrepreneur Allan Warburg<\/a> and his wife, Chinese-born art collector Mei Warburg<\/a>, acquired the property and began transforming it into a site where contemporary sculpture and ecological stewardship would become inseparable from the wine experience.<\/p>\n

While the estate\u2019s viticulture has since earned acclaim\u2014producing single-vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on over 200 hectares of regenerative organic land\u2014what sets Donum apart is its world-class, open-air collection of monumental art. With more than 60 sculptures sited across its hills, it is now one of the largest accessible museum-grade private collections of outdoor sculpture in the world. These works are not static decor, but active participants in a living ecosystem, drawing on the land\u2019s energy and shaping the visitor\u2019s relationship to scale, time and movement.<\/p>\n

That ethos of harmony extends beyond the vineyards. A regenerative organic-certified lavender field, olive grove, plum orchard and culinary garden compose a living laboratory of sensory and ecological exchange. Yet the art remains the emotional and spatial center of it all\u2014quietly guiding the experience. What began as a vineyard has evolved into a rare cultural landscape, where sculpture and soil shape one another in real time. Donum is less a winery with art than an open-air museum embedded in the land, where every element\u2014natural and made\u2014serves the same purpose: to cultivate a deeper attunement to beauty.<\/p>\n

\"Doug\"Doug
A polyurethane fountain by Lynda Benglis. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the energy that emerges from the interplay between art and the land,\u201d said Angelica de Vere Mabray<\/a>, CEO of the Donum Estate, when Observer visited during FOG Design + Art<\/a>. (Located just over an hour from San Francisco, the estate should be an essential stop for any art enthusiast visiting Fog City.) This year, for the first time, Donum officially partnered with the fair and SFAW, underscoring its commitment to supporting art and culture across the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

De Vere Mabray welcomed us to the art-filled Donum Home, the estate\u2019s hospitality center, which was redesigned and renovated by award-winning Danish architect David Thulstrup<\/a>. Its light-filled interiors blend Scandinavian sensibilities with Eastern harmony, all rooted in California\u2019s materials and natural beauty.<\/p>\n

Greeting visitors at the entrance is a towering Yayoi Kusama<\/a> Pumpkin. Inside, major works from the collection appear throughout the space: an expansive tapestry by El Anatsui<\/a> flanks the wine display, while overhead, a floating \u201ccloud ceiling\u201d by Tom\u00e1s Saraceno hovers beside Jeppe Hein<\/a>\u2019s colorfully playful balloons. A large canvas by Liu Xiaodong<\/a> anchors a grouping of works by prominent Chinese artists from the post-Tiananmen generation, including Yue Minjun<\/a> and Zhang Huan<\/a>. In another room, a glass cylinder encases Ai Weiwei<\/a>\u2019s hand-painted Sunflower Seeds<\/i>\u2014originally created for his iconic Turbine Hall commission<\/a>, in which he filled the space with more than 100 million individual porcelain seeds to draw attention to the artisanal labor behind mass production and the mythology of conformity in China.<\/p>\n

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Zhang Wang\u2019s Artificial Rock<\/em>. Chip Allen 2016<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond expansive glass doors, the estate\u2019s lush greenery foregrounds California\u2019s mountains and San Francisco Bay, in a landscape punctuated by monumental artworks. On the terrace, a pink-tinted polyurethane fountain by Lynda Benglis<\/a> flows with shifting currents, its organic form constantly in motion. Farther down the path, a head by Jaume Plensa<\/a> towers, while a more recent work by William Kentridge<\/a> appears downhill in dialogue with Zhang Wang<\/a>\u2019s Artificial Rock No. 28<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Dated 2001, Zhang\u2019s sculpture was the first installed at the Donum Estate. The artist used stainless steel to create a handmade, three-dimensional rubbing of natural Jiashan stone, embodying a tension between organic formations and human-made imitations. \u201cThat connection is really intentional. The ideas of healthy soils, regenerative agriculture, responsible stewardship and farming are core to our belief system. They\u2019re deeply integrated into how we think about the art, the wine and everything else at Donum. All of it reinforces that bond between the land and the experience,\u201d emphasized de Vere Mabray.<\/p>\n

Allan and Mei Warburg now live full-time in Hong Kong, while maintaining homes in Beijing, Shanghai and San Francisco. Allan Warburg, born in Denmark, frequently traveled to Asia with his parents and studied Chinese in college before enrolling at Yunnan University. He began his career in the trading industry, ultimately settling in China, where he met Mei. The two shared a passion for both art and wine and began collecting early\u2014particularly works by the emerging Chinese artists of the time. \u201cWhen they purchased Donum, they brought that first work by Zhang Wang with them, without any concrete plan to build what would eventually become one of the world\u2019s most significant contemporary sculpture collections,\u201d de Vere Mabray said. \u201cEverything else unfolded organically from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The estate was originally founded in 2001 as a winery, with no plans for hosting visitors. It wasn\u2019t until nearly a decade later, as artworks began to arrive, that the property began evolving in a new direction. The Warburgs started collecting large-scale sculpture in 2015, and soon after, they began intentionally dedicating works to the estate, collecting not just for themselves but for the land and its future. Still, it was only in 2019, with the arrival of de Vere Mabray as CEO, that art became strategically embedded in Donum\u2019s identity. \u201cWe start thinking much more intentionally about programming and how people experience Donum not just through wine, but through the intersection of art, land and place,\u201d de Vere Mabray explained. \u201cAt that point, the collection comprised around 40 works; today it has grown significantly, and continues to shape how the estate is experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Louise\"Louise
Louise Bourgeois, Crouching Spider<\/em>, 2003. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, it\u2019s home to nearly 60 artworks, with new additions installed at an irregular pace, depending on the artists\u2019 schedules and production timelines. Nearly half the pieces are site-specific commissions by artists who\u2019ve spent time on the property, engaging with its environment and responding to the land. The curatorial direction is guided not by an external consultant or brand identity, but by the Warburgs\u2019 taste, affections and personal relationships with the artists.<\/p>\n

Although they\u2019ve kept a low profile and chosen not to brand the collection under their name, the Warburgs still make all key decisions. \u201cIn most cases, they\u2019ve built real friendships with the artists, who are involved in choosing the precise location of each work,\u201d de Vere Mabray said.<\/p>\n

She gestures to a sculpture by William Kentridge<\/a> as a clear example. \u201cHe came to Donum a few years ago with his wife while he was at Berkeley for a symposium. He walked the property, spent time here and chose this specific location for the work,\u201d de Vere Mabray recounted. \u201cThat\u2019s generally how it happens. When they acquire something, there\u2019s a real conversation with the artist about where it belongs and where the energy is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before venturing deeper into the green hills of the estate, we stop at a pavilion dedicated to Louise Bourgeois\u2019s iconic Crouching Spider<\/i>. This particular work is one of the few the artist created using metal construction materials she gathered in New York before fusing and welding them by hand. Due to its sensitivity, the sculpture requires an indoor, climate-controlled environment for proper preservation. In the same room, her The Mirror<\/i> presents a distorted reflective surface, seemingly devoured by the vital interplay of predator and prey, winner and victim\u2014the very dynamics that shape every ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\"Mirrored\"Mirrored
In the Sensory Garden, Yang Bao\u2019s site-specific installation reimagines land damaged by disease as a living soundscape shaped by wind, humidity and movement. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just outside, Mikado Tree<\/i> by Pascale Marthine Tayou<\/a> rises from the landscape. Another signature site on the property is the Vertical Panorama Pavilion<\/i>, conceived by Olafur Eliasson<\/a>\u2019s studio in collaboration with architect Sebastian Behmann<\/a>. An immersive architectural and emotional experience, the rainbow-hued structure functions as a multisensory instrument\u2014inviting visitors to reconnect with nature and recalibrate to its rhythms. Its conical canopy acts as a kind of calendar, centered on a north-facing oculus and glazed with 832 laminated glass panels in varying hues. Each panel corresponds to data gathered at the estate by Eliasson\u2019s design studio, representing annual averages of solar radiation, wind intensity, temperature and humidity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis studio flew from Berlin to install it. A concrete pad was poured here; the work was fabricated and assembled in Berlin, then brought to Donum and reconstructed on site,\u201d de Vere Mabray shared. \u201cOlafur was standing right here with Sebastian Berman, and he pointed out that when you stand here, you\u2019re shoulder-width apart, fully grounded\u2014literally planted in the earth. You have a 360-degree view, and while you\u2019re standing here, you can smell the soil, hear the grasses moving, and hear the birds. It\u2019s deeply immersive and completely rooted in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Doug\"Doug
Doug Aitken\u2019s Sonic Mountain (Sonoma)<\/em> transforms the Carneros breeze into a resonant instrument. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, much of the art is organically and symbiotically rooted within the land. A particularly moving example is the estate\u2019s Sensory Garden, which has been completely reimagined through Yang Bao<\/a>\u2019s immersive multisensory installation HYPERSPACE<\/i>. Designed to blend seamlessly with the natural environment, the work responds to and converses with its surroundings: encircling a central pyramid, nine sculptural elements generate a spatial soundscape\u2014a site-specific composition by Bao that shifts with wind, temperature and humidity.<\/p>\n

Donum grows three lavender varietals, and each summer, an entire hillside blooms into an ocean of purple. Originally, the estate\u2019s lavender was planted on the very site where Bao\u2019s installation now stands. But repeated failures led the Donum team to consult botanists who diagnosed Phytophthora\u2014a soil-borne pathogen that attacks lavender roots coping with poor drainage. Instead of fighting the land, the team relocated the lavender to higher ground, where it now thrives. The cleared site became the foundation Bao\u2014who is both a chemist and a composer\u2014used to reimagine the terrain, helping it heal through art.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a spiritual dimension running through many of the artists\u2019 installations at Donum, according to de Vere Mabray. One such work is Doug AItken<\/a>\u2019s Sonic Mountain (Sonoma)<\/i>, located in the Eucalyptus Grove. Measuring 45 feet in diameter and composed of 365 chimes\u2014one for each day of the year\u2014the sculpture is a living instrument activated by the Carneros breeze, one of Donum\u2019s most persistent natural forces. While Aitken has engaged environmental themes in recent projects\u2014most notably in his 2025 exhibition at Regen Projects<\/a>\u2014this installation marks a subtle and unexpected shift. Rather than addressing ecological urgency through overt imagery or a conceptual framework rooted in institutional critique, the artist operates here in a more spiritual register, privileging sensation and attunement.<\/p>\n

\"Anselm\"Anselm
Anselm Kiefer, Mohn und Geda\u0308chtnis<\/em>, 2017. Photo Robert Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The land speaks to the art just as the art speaks to the land\u2014there\u2019s a clear dialogue between the two. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly powerful, De Vere Mabray said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what we hope people take away: an understanding of that possible exchange of energy between art and landscape.\u201d Seen in person, sculptures feel embedded in their environment, not simply installed on it. Rather than functioning as a curated series of standalone works, the collection operates as part of a larger, site-specific system in which form, material and placement respond directly to the terrain.<\/p>\n

This sense of integration runs throughout the estate. Sculptures are situated with intention\u2014some echoing the contours of the land, others drawing attention to its shifts in light, texture or scale. The same attention applied to cultivating Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is visible in how artworks are commissioned and positioned. The result is not just aesthetic harmony, but a layered visitor experience that bridges visual art, agriculture and landscape. Here, art doesn\u2019t compete with the landscape, and the landscape doesn\u2019t merely serve as a backdrop. Each reinforces the other, creating a rhythm of encounter that feels designed to sharpen awareness\u2014not just of the estate, but of the viewer\u2019s own place within it.<\/p>\n

\"Bronze\"Bronze
Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals Zodiac Heads<\/em>, 2011. Photo Bob Berg | Courtesy Donum Estate<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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