Mark Rothko’s abstractions, recognizable for his or her rectangularly formed floating kinds and skinny washes of colour, have been mentioned by critics and historians to invoke the metaphysical. The Russian-American painter relied on these formal components to imbue his canvases with grand which means. He famously remarked his works comprise the essential tenets of human feeling: “tragedy, ecstasy, doom.”
The artist is remembered for his disdain for the artwork institution as properly. Although Rothko rejected associations with the artwork market’s elite throughout his lifetime, his work have lengthy attracted a few of the wealthiest patrons across the globe. Within the late Fifties, Rothko produced a sequence of deep-red murals for the Seagram Constructing in Manhattan, commissioned by the Bronfman household who owned the historic resort. The deal fell via when the artist decried the venue for its steep costs, however the works produced for the sequence went on to change into a few of the most well-known of his profession. A number of now reside on view on the Tate in London. The next decade, Texan mega-collectors John and Dominique de Menil assembled a set of 14 monumental works by the Summary Expressionist that may line the partitions of the now-famed Rothko Chapel in Houston. In 2021, that beloved area reopened after a $30 million restoration.
Now as then, Rothko’s works command a few of the highest costs available on the market. In Might 2026, for instance, when vendor Robert Mnuchin’s assortment got here to public sale at Sotheby’s in New York, Rothko’s 1957 portray Brown and Blacks in Reds was given a $70 million–$100 million estimate. Whereas the portray narrowly didn’t re-set Rothko’s file, it did make a wholesome $85.8 million.
Then, simply days later, a unique Rothko, one belonging to the late collector Agnes Gund, succeeded in doing what Mnuchin’s portray couldn’t. It bought at Christie’s for $98 million, outpacing Rothko’s prior benchmark by greater than $10 million.
Beneath, a listing of Rothko’s prime public sale costs.
This text first printed in 2021. It was up to date on Might 18, 2026.
Untitled, 1952
Picture Credit score: Christie’s Bought for: $66.2 million
In Might 2014, Rothko’s 1962 untitled canvas soared previous its $40 million estimate throughout a Christie’s New York night sale, realizing $66.2 million. The eight-and-a-half-foot-tall portray, that includes fields of violet, orange, and burgundy, went to a shopper on the telephone with Christie’s Asia specialist Xin Li. Simply days later, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen bought one other Rothko from 1955 with a blue and orange scheme at Phillips for $56.2 million.
White middle (Yellow, pink and lavender on rose), 1950
Picture Credit score: AP Pictures Bought for: $72.8 million
In Might 2007, Sotheby’s bought White middle (Yellow, pink and lavender on rose) for $72.8 million. It had come to public sale from the gathering of David Rockefeller, who held onto the portray for practically 5 many years. He had bought it from New York’s Sidney Janis Gallery in 1960 for lower than $10,000, which on the time was no small sum for a piece for a residing artist. (The yr afterward, Rothko’s retrospective on the Museum of Trendy Artwork cemented the artist’s standing as one of many day’s foremost Summary Expressionists.) The six-and-a-half-foot-tall work was purchased by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and his spouse Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned. Not like Rothko’s deeper-hued works from his later interval, White middle has a extra vibrant colour scheme, with the canvas divided into horizontal bands that seem extra usually in his earlier works.
No. 1 (Royal Crimson and Blue), 1954
Picture Credit score: Sotheby’s Bought for: $75 million
In November 2012, No. 1 (Royal Crimson and Blue) from 1954 bought for $75.1 million at a Sotheby’s night sale in New York. The worth far exceeded the pre-sale estimate of $35 million. Earlier than coming to sale, it handed via the fingers of esteemed vendor Richard Feigen and New York collector Ben Heller. The canvas is one among eight the artist chosen for his solo present in 1954 on the Artwork Institute of Chicago.
No. 10, 1958
Picture Credit score: Christie’s Bought for: $81.9 million
In Might 2015, Rothko’s No. 10 (1950) bought for $81.9 million throughout Christie’s postwar and modern artwork night sale in New York. The 1958 portray, which Rothko accomplished as a part of the Seagram constructing fee, options darkish orange kinds hovering over a black background, showing to present it a haloed impact. Throughout the late Fifties, Rothko started to maneuver away from vibrant hues of his earlier work and in the direction of a extra austere palette. “He gave the impression to be saying in these new foreboding works, that he was by no means portray luxe, calme and volupté, if we had solely realize it,” critic Dore Ashton as soon as wrote. At Christie’s, the portray surpassed its $45 million estimate, hammering for a worth of $73 million after a number of bidders competed for it. The nameless American vendor bought it in 1986 from Tempo Gallery.
Brown and Blacks in Reds, 1957
Picture Credit score: Courtesy Sotheby’s Bought for: $85.8 million
This was some of the costly works to return to public sale through the Might 2026 public sale season in New York, and it didn’t fail to fulfill expectations, even when it didn’t fairly make the file some had hoped for. It got here to sale from the gathering of Robert Mnuchin, the funding banker–turned–artwork vendor who led an Higher East Facet gallery below his title and died earlier than the yr that Sotheby’s auctioned this portray. This Rothko was proven at Sidney Janis Gallery earlier than being purchased by the Seagram firm, which hung it within the foyer of its New York workplace. Then, in 2003, the corporate, now below the possession of the conglomerate Vivendi, bought the work at Christie’s for $6.7 million. Meaning the portray is now price 12 occasions as a lot because it as soon as was.
Orange, crimson, yellow, 1961
Picture Credit score: Christie’s Bought for: $86.9 million
In Might 2012, Orange, crimson, yellow (1961) bought for $86.9 million when it went below the hammer at Christie’s in New York. Throughout the sale, the portray soared previous its $45 million excessive estimate. The consequence surpassed the earlier file worth for a postwar work on the the open market, narrowly outpacing Sotheby’s 2008 sale of a Francis Bacon triptych for $86.3 million. Alongside works from Rothko’s friends, amongst them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Clyfford Nonetheless, the portray was bought from the gathering of Philadelphia retailer David Pincus, which introduced in a collected $174.9 million. Pincus had held onto the work for greater than 4 many years; he took out a mortgage in 1967 to buy it from Marlborough Gallery.
Mark Rothko, No. 15 (Two Greens and Crimson Stripe), 1964
Picture Credit score: Christie’s Photos Ltd. 2026 Bought for: $98 million
This was the second high-profile Rothko bought on the New York gross sales in Might 2026, and it ended up being the one which succeeded in lastly breaking the artist’s file. This Rothko beforehand belonged to the beloved collector and patron Agnes Gund, who personally purchased it from the artist in 1967, three years earlier than his loss of life by suicide, and who went on to hold the work in her lounge, the place it remained till her loss of life in 2025. The portray emblematizes Rothko’s signature Coloration Area portray model, with a darkish sq. of inexperienced showing to drift above rectangles in shades of crimson and black.
