Rothko Sells for $85.8 Million, Almost Surpasses Auction Record
2May 19, 2026
Sotheby’s New York logged a big win last Thursday with the $85.8 million sale ofMark Rothko’sBrown and Blacks in Reds, 1957, a sterling example of the painter’s singular style. This is now the second-highest price the artist has ever fetched at auction. The top spot belongs to his 1961 paintingOrange, Red, Yellow,which sold at Christie’s in 2012 for $86.9 million.
According to Artnet, prospective bidders sparred over the Rothko for approximately four minutes before a bidder speaking on the phone with Helena Newman, the chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, closed the deal.
Besides being from Rothko’s postwar Color Field paintings—a body of work that does especially well at auction—Brown and Blacks is notable for its provenance. It was first shown at the influential Sidney Janis Gallery. The painting was in the collection of Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., the Canadian distillery corporation of ginger ale fame, before being bought at auction in 2003 by Robert Mnuchin, the investment banker turned art dealer who passed away last December at the age of ninety-two. The Rothko was sold as part of an 11-work auction dedicated to pieces from Mnuchin’s private collection.
Mnuchin was also known for his collaborations with the equally iconic Willem de Kooning who was appropriately represented at this most recent auction. His 1970 painting Untitled sold for $8.8 million, and de Kooning’s Untitled XLII from 1983 went for $10.2 million. All told, the Mnuchin sale brought in $166.3 million with fees for Sotheby’s.
David Galperin, vice chair and head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s said on Thursday that the art market is presently “discerning but excitable.”