Sotheby’s $389.3 M. Contemporary Art Sale Led by $85.8 M. Rothko

At its Madison Avenue headquarters, Sotheby’s kicked off its May auction season early, right in the middle of the opening of art fairs across Manhattan, with a solid if not exciting performance. Modern and contemporary art sales reached $433.1 million, led by a painting by Mark Rothko valued at $85.8 million. Christie’s and Phillips will hold major auctions next week. Last year’s equivalent sales were just $186.1 million.

“The sale was hot and it felt real,” New York consultant Laura Paulson said as she left the auction room in the evening.

“It’s a good deal,” consultant Jacob King said after his unsuccessful bid for the Warhol work. “Not super exciting, but nice.”

The 11 works in this auction come from the estate of legendary New York art dealer Robert Mnuchin and his wife Adriana. Robert Mnuchin died last year at the age of 92. The group estimates the sale price to be more than $130 million. The auction house guaranteed the seller an undisclosed price for the group of works, which includes works by Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Pablo Picasso and other market stalwarts. The total transaction price of these 11 works is US$166.3 million (including commission), and all works have found buyers.

Leading the group is Rothko’s Abstract Expressionist canvas brown and black red (1957), which stands over 7 feet tall and is estimated at $70 million to $100 million. The painting remained in the collection of alcoholic beverage tycoon Joseph E. Seagram until 2003, when Mnuchin purchased it at Christie’s in New York for just $6.7 million. This is expected to surpass his existing record of $86.9 million Orange, red, yellow (1961) was auctioned at Christie’s New York in 2012, although it just barely reached that figure.

brown and black red It was sold for $74 million, although including fees, its value rose to $85.8 million, making it the second-highest Rothko ever sold at public auction. (Unless otherwise noted, all figures in this report include buyer’s premium.) The room applauded after Rothko’s hammer fell.

Mnuchin’s haul also includes another Roscoe; No. 1 (1949), estimated to be as high as $20 million. It was auctioned at Christie’s in London in 2017, where it fetched $13 million. Including the premium, the painting sold well above its high estimate at $20.8 million, meaning it had gained $7 million in value in less than a decade.

The 11-lot auction was brief, lasting just over half an hour, leaving plenty of time for a short break before the contemporary art sale. Most of the art sold at or above estimates, and many sold quickly. The only exception was an untitled abstract painting by Willem de Kooning from 1970, which was sold for $8.8 million after four and a half minutes of bidding, to much applause. With premiums added, that number rises to $10.8 million. The amount exceeds the work’s high estimate by more than $4 million.

Subsequently, a 90-minute auction of 40 pieces of contemporary art took place that night. One of the lots was withdrawn before the auction, with a total transaction volume of US$266.8 million.

Leading the auction is a seven-foot-tall painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1983 Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)with a price tag of over $45 million. It was last on the market in 2013, when an unknown buyer paid $14.6 million for it at Christie’s in London. art news It was previously reported that the buyer was French art dealer John Sayegh-Belchatowski; Sotheby’s only described it as coming from an “outstanding collection.” After on-site bidding, the final transaction price was US$45.3 million, including the housing cost of US$52.7 million. This makes it the fifth most expensive Basquiat ever sold at public auction.

Willem de Kooning’s Untitled III (1975) has been off the market for twenty years; it comes to auction for the first time with an estimate of $25 million to $35 million. The 7-foot-tall canvas was guaranteed for sale by the auction house but barely met its low estimate after fees, selling for $26 million.

Andy Warhol’s Brigitte Bardot (1974) has a price tag of $14 million to $18 million. Last November, another Warhol painting featuring the late French actress sold for $16.7 million on Loïc Gouzer’s Fair Warning platform, and this one fetched even more. Created for Bardot’s ex-husband Gunter Sachs, the film, which showed the movie star’s bright red lips in a predominantly bright green image, exceeded expectations at $24.8 million after five minutes of intense bidding.

Another Rothko, an Untitled The 1969 painting, which features a large black border with a purple border, has been off the market since the seller purchased it in 2000. The painting had a high estimate of $15 million and was sold for $16.5 million. It comes from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, as does the collection of Lucio Fontana Venetian sky space concept (1961). In 2002, the De Gunzburgs bought the 5-square-foot Fontana canvas at Sotheby’s in London for £1.4 million ($2.1 million). It had a high estimate of $15 million and sold for $16.4 million.

Roy Lichtenstein’s Half face with collar (1963), estimated at $10 million to $15 million, has entered the collections of legendary dealers Ileana Sonnabend, Gian Enzo Sperone and Larry Gagosian. The home has secured an undisclosed price to the unnamed seller; it’s assessed at just under $13 million.

Agnes Martin’s Untitled #10 (1981), a six-foot-square abstract work painted in white nude and light stripes, is estimated at $7 million to $10 million. The home was guaranteed an undisclosed price to an unnamed seller; it sold for just $7.2 million, but came to $8.9 million with fees.

Martin is not the only post-war female painter whose work stands out tonight. Joan Mitchell’s Loom No. 2 (1976), a blue abstract painting by a studio in the French commune of Vitteuil, returns to auction on Thursday for the second time in the past two decades. In 2013, it was sold at Christie’s for over $1 million. It sold at Sotheby’s tonight for $7.8 million, proving how far the Mitchell market has grown.

Emerging artists are part of a market category often referred to as “hyper-contemporary” by major auction houses, and they perform well at Sotheby’s. The market in this area has shrunk significantly in recent years— new york times According to the report, the number of ultra-contemporary works is three-quarters of what it was four years ago, when the field was hot. But the Sotheby’s sale shows the ultra-contemporary market isn’t completely dead.

Lot 1 is a painting by Ding Shilun (b. 1998), a Chinese painter whose market is growing rapidly. Conservative estimates put his estimate at $50,000 to $70,000 Third Prince (2022) ultimately sold for $358,400, including fees. That’s more than double the record he set last year at London’s Phillips Gallery, when one of his paintings sold for the equivalent of $149,600. Not a bad performance for an artist who has never had a solo show in New York.

The selling price of Lot 2 also exceeded the estimate; leave carpet (2017), by Yu Nishimura (b. 1982), had a high estimate of $180,000 but sold for $998,400 after a long and fierce competition. This broke the artist’s auction record of $711,200, set in 2025 at Sotheby’s New York. bush (2020), several times its high estimate of $120,000. (It helped that that year he also joined David Zwirner, one of the largest galleries in the world.)

American painter Joseph Yaeger (b. 1986) continues his market rise with paintings in 2021 euphemism It sold for $320,000, setting a new auction record of $265,700. The German painter Florian Krewer (b. 1986) made his debut at auction in New York and also performed strongly. In a show of confidence, auction house gives away his moody 2022 painting night hunterFeaturing a group of mythical animals gazing into a green sea, the work is estimated at $180,000, more than triple the $52,500 record he set at London’s Phillips Gallery last year. The painting eventually sold for $256,000, nearly five times that price.