A Mark Rothko painting has been sold for $ 82.5 million ($ 112.4 million) at auction, the second-highest price for a work by the late abstract artist, as part of a $ 921 million collection owned by US real estate mogul Harry Macklowe.
It was the first time that the work with the title No. 7 – a 241 centimeter high canvas painted in 1951 in ribbons of green, crimson and lavender – had come up for auction.
The identity of the buyer was not known.
The record for a Rothko was set in 2012 when “Orange, red, yellow” sold for $ 118 million at Christie’s in New York.
The Rothko work was just one of dozens of leading artists at auction from the collection acquired by Mr. Macklowe and then-wife Linda for 45 years.
A judge in New York ordered them to sell the collection and share the profits in the middle during their 2018 divorce case.
Jackson Pollock’s number 17, 1951, set a new record for the abstract American artist of $ 83.4 million, while Cy Twombly’s large 2007 Untitled Work of Abstract Red Peonies in its first appearance at auction sold for $ 80.2 million.
Other works sold included the 1947 sculpture Le Nez by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, the world’s most expensive sculptor. It brought in $ 106.8 million.
Andy Warhol’s 1962 Nine Marilyn Silk Print, made shortly after Marilyn Monroe’s death, went for $ 66.1 million, while the pop artist’s Sixteen Jackies tribute to former American first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in black, white and blue tones sold for $ 46.1 million. dollars.
Sotheby’s said the 65 works in the Macklowe Collection represent “an unsurpassed ensemble that charts the highlights of Western artistic achievements of the last 80 years”.
The auction was divided into two parts, and the remaining about 40 works were to be sold in May 2022.
Reuters
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