Why the New York Art Market Is Having a Mark Rothko Moment

In the 1950s, the center of the art world shifted from Pablo Picasso’s Paris to Mark Rothko’s New York. This week, Rothko is once again the focus of the city’s art scene, with seven paintings up for sale between Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and TEFAF.

Rothko’s canvases—instantly recognizable for their rectangular swaths of color—are among the most expensive artworks ever sold, reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars on the private market.

Just this week, two of Rothko’s most notable masterpieces are up for sale, due to the recent deaths of leading New York collectors Robert Mnuchin and Agnes Gund. It was coincidence that brought them both to auction at the same time, but renewed interest in the titans of Abstract Expressionism and the buzz around the Rothko exhibitions are helping propel the prices.

Mark Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957), sold for $85.8 million.

Today, the late Abstract Expressionist’s popularity has never been greater, with blockbuster shows drawing crowds at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris in 2023 and, currently, at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

At Sotheby’s on Thursday night, Mnuchin’s towering red-hued painting, Brown and Blacks in Reds, from 1957, sold for $85.8 million. It was just shy of the $86.9 million record set for the artist almost 15 years ago at Christie’s. From the same collection, a second, smaller 1949 Rothko in shades of blue, orange, and yellow sold for $20.8 million. And, from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, a predominantly black painting with violet edges sold for $16.5 million.

Home of Jean and Terry De Gunzburg, with an untitled Rothko painting from 1969, that sold for $16.5 million.

Altogether the auction house sold four Rothkos this past week, with one more, relatively diminutive red-and-orange canvas coming up for sale, also from an estate, on Wednesday at an estimate of $5 million.

The Rothko craze extends beyond the auction world. At TEFAF (The European Fine Art Foundation) fair in New York this weekend, Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries is offering a sunny, yellow-and-white Rothko painting from a Palm Beach collector. The dealer trio of Pace Gallery, Emmanuel Di Donna, and David Schrader predicted that one of the artist’s paintings would make a headline-grabbing centerpiece for their booth, so Pace, which has represented the Rothko estate for almost five decades, located one to put on offer.

Installation view of Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries presentation, TEFAF New York, featuring Rothko’s Yellow and White (1956).

“With Rothko, the color is what you react to,” Di Donna tells ELLE Decor. “And this one has a warm, beautiful energy.” Brighter hues historically command higher prices.

But that cardinal rule of Rothko might be broken this week—along with the artist’s auction record—by a canvas from the Gund collection. Christie’s is offering the totemic painting, in jewel tones of dark teal and indigo with a bright red stripe across the bottom third, at an estimate of $80 million. The prominent philanthropist bought it straight out of the artist’s studio on East 69th Street in 1967, and it was the centerpiece of her living room for nearly six decades. That kind of provenance only adds to the value.

Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) from the collection of Agnes Gund. It’s estimated to sell for $80 million at Christie’s.