The Tamesis
Mark Rothko’s abstract works are known for their rectangular floating forms and pale colors, which critics and historians say invoke metaphysics. The Russian-American painter relied on these formal elements to imbue his canvases with grandiose meaning. He once said that his work contained the basic principles of human emotion: “tragedy, ecstasy, doom.”
The artist is also remembered for his disdain for the art establishment. Although Rothko refused to associate with the art market’s elite during his lifetime, his paintings have long attracted some of the world’s wealthiest patrons. In the late 1950s, Rothko created a series of crimson murals for Manhattan’s Seagram Building, commissioned by the Bronfman family, which owned the historic hotel. The deal fell through when the artist denounced the venue as being overpriced, but the pieces produced for the series went on to become some of the most famous of his career. Several of them are now on display at the Tate Gallery in London. Over the next decade, Texas supercollectors John and Dominique de Menil assembled 14 monumental works by the Abstract Expressionist artist that would line the walls of Houston’s now-famous Rothko Chapel. In 2021, this beloved space reopened following a $30 million restoration.
As at that time, Rothko’s works commanded some of the highest prices on the market. For example, in May 2026, when the collection of dealer Robert Mnuchin was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York, Rothko’s 1957 painting brown and black red The estimate is $70 million to $100 million. While the painting narrowly missed out on Rothko’s record, it did earn $85.8 million.
Below is a list of Rothko’s highest auction prices.
This article was first published in 2021. Updated on May 14, 2026.
Untitled1952
Image source: Christie’s
Price: $66.2 million
In May 2014, Rothko’s untitled oil painting created in 1962 soared to US$40 million at Christie’s evening auction in New York, and was finally sold for US$66.2 million. The eight-and-a-half-foot-tall painting, which features violet, orange and burgundy colors, was handed over the phone to a client by Christie’s Asia specialist Li Xin. A few days later, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen sold another 1955 Rothko, designed in blue and orange, for $56.2 million at Phillips.
White center (yellow, pink and lilac on rose)1950
Image source: AP Photo
Price: $72.8 million
Sold by Sotheby’s in May 2007 White center (yellow, pink and lilac on rose) $72.8 million. The painting comes from the collection of David Rockefeller, who owned it for nearly fifty years. He purchased the work from the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in 1960 for less than $10,000, a considerable sum for a living artist at the time. (The following year, Rothko’s retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art cemented the artist’s status as one of the most important Abstract Expressionists living today.) The six-and-a-half-foot-tall work was purchased by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and his wife, Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned. Unlike Rothko’s later works with darker tones, white center Featuring a more vivid color scheme, the canvas is divided into horizontal bands, more common in his earlier works.
No. 1 (royal red, royal blue)1954
Image source: Sotheby’s
Price: $75 million
November 2012, No. 1 (royal red, royal blue) Sold for $75.1 million at Sotheby’s evening auction in New York in 1954. The sale price far exceeded the pre-sale estimate of US$35 million. Before being sold, it passed through the hands of respected dealer Richard Fagan and New York collector Ben Heller. This canvas was one of eight selected by the artist for his 1954 solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.
No. 101958
Image source: Christie’s
Price: $81.9 million
May 2015, Roscoe No. 10 (1950) sold for $81.9 million at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York. This 1958 painting, which Rothko completed as part of the Seagram Architectural Commission, features dark orange shapes hovering over a black background, seeming to give it a halo effect. In the late 1950s, Rothko began to move away from the vibrant tones of his early paintings and toward a more austere palette. Critic Dore Ashton once wrote, “He seems to be saying in these new foreboding works that he never painted sumptuous, serene, and sensual paintings if we knew it.” At Christie’s, the painting exceeded its estimate of $45 million, eventually fetching $73 million after several bidders. The anonymous American seller purchased it from Pace Gallery in 1986.
brown and black red1957
Image source: Courtesy of Sotheby’s
Price: $85.8 million
It was one of the most expensive works sold during the New York auction season in May 2026, and it didn’t live up to expectations, although it didn’t quite hit the record some had hoped. The painting comes from the collection of Robert Mnuchin, an investment banker-turned-art dealer who headed an Upper East Side gallery in his own name and who died the year before Sotheby’s auctioned the painting. This Rothko was exhibited at the Janis Gallery in Sydney and was later acquired by Seagram Corporation, where it hangs in the lobby of its New York office. Then, in 2003, the company (now owned by Vivendi Group) sold the work at Christie’s for $6.7 million. This means the painting is now worth 12 times what it was before.
Orange, red, yellow1961
Image source: Christie’s
Price: $86.9 million
May 2012, Orange, red, yellow (1961) sold for $86.9 million at Christie’s New York. During the auction, the painting’s estimate soared to $45 million. The sale broke the previous record for a postwar work on the open market and was slightly higher than Sotheby’s 2008 auction price of $86.3 million for a Francis Bacon triptych. The painting was sold in the collection of Philadelphia retailer David Pincus, along with works by Rothko’s peers such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Clyfford Still, for $174.9 million. Pincus has been doing this work for more than four decades. In 1967 he purchased the painting with a loan from a Marlborough gallery.
