Robert Mnuchin’s $85.7m Rothko leads Sotheby’s $407.5m auction in New York – The Art Newspaper

Last night’s double-header evening at Sotheby’s, featuring the vaunted single owner Robert Mnuchin collection followed by a mixed vendor contemporary portion, raked in a solid and market reassuring $407.5m ($433.1m with fees), midway between pre-sale expectations of $325.6m to $444.m (estimates do not include fees.) Given the fraught geopolitical state of the world, such a resurgence of market confidence is all the more remarkable.

Mnuchin, a Wall Street titan turned eponymous art dealer who died last December at the age of 92, kicked off the evening. All eleven lots from his collection were backed by either house or third party guarantees, and garnered $140.7m ($166.3m with fees). Technically speaking, it was a risk free “white glove” sale.

Pablo Picasso’s petite, Neo-Classical period Deux femmes nues assises from 1921 led off the trove and sold for $1.2m ($1.5m with fees). Mnuchin had acquired it at Christie’s in London back in July 1998 for a hammer price of £330,000.

Next, Willem de Kooning’s juicy abstraction, Untitled (1970)—an oil on paper mounted on canvas which measured a substantial 72in by 42½in and was formerly in the collection of the Swiss art dealer legend Thomas Ammann—attracted four bidders and tallied $8.8m ($10.8m with fees).

A second, bigger de Kooning, the wispy and minimal late painting Untitled XLII from 1983 and measuring 80in by 70in, sold for $10.2m ($12.4.m with fees). It was underbid by Morgan Long, founder of the eponymous London art advisory firm, who told The Art Newspaper as she walked out of the saleroom: “I almost got something amazing.”

Joan Miro’s quirkily figured Dormeurs réveillés par un oiseau, executed in gouache and watercolor on paper in 1939, sold to a telephone bidder for $5.2m ($6.4m with fees). Mnuchin had bought it at a Christie’s New York auction in November 2012 for $3.3m.

The big guns quickly followed with Mark Rothko’s magisterial abstraction, Brown and Blacks in Reds from 1957 (90.5in by 60.5in), climbing to $74m ($85.7m with fees). It came in just shy of the $86.8m record set by Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) at Christie’s New York in May 2012. Brown and Blacks in Reds formerly resided in the storied Seagram Collection which acquired the Rothko from the Sidney Janis Gallery in around 1957. Mnuchin bought it at Christie’s New York in May 2003 for $6,727,500 with fees. The pre-sale estimate this time around was $70m to $100m.

A second Rothko from Mnuchin, the early and colour-charged No. 1 from 1949, sold to another anonymous telephone bidder for $17.5m ($20.8m with fees). Mnuchin nabbed it at Christie’s London in March 2017 for £9.4m hammer.

It is rather ironic that much of what hit the block at Sotheby’s last night came back to market from its arch-rival Christie’s.

Another AB-EX trophy, Franz Kline’s jet black and jagged edged Harleman from 1960, went for $12m ($14.4m with fees). It was titled after the artist’s close friend Stanley Harleman and was last exhibited at the Mnuchin Gallery in April 2025.

The following lot, Jeff Koons’s stainless steel bust, Louis XIV (1986) sold to the private dealer Philippe Segalot for $8m ($8.5m with fees).

In terms of date, the youngest entry was David Hammon’s rope cinched tarp painting, Untitled (2017), an abstract partially hidden underneath its plastic shroud, brought $850,000 ($1m with fees).

Following the Mnuchin portion, the atmosphere in Sotheby’s crowded new headquarters The Breuer, formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, shifted to a lower voltage with the onset of the 48-lot The Now and Contemporary section of the evening.

All in, the line-up realised $223m ($266.8m with fees), again healthily midway between pre-sale estimates of $200.7m to $266.8m. Though it was hardly a feeding frenzy, all but four works sold and four new artist records were set.

The first few lots of The Now section featured young but mostly unheralded upstarts, led off by the 28-year-old Ding Shilun’s fantastical Three Princes (2022) that made a record $280,000 ($358,400 with fees) against a pre-sale estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. The Shilun was followed by Yu Nishimura’s large-scale and dream-like landscape with a solitary figure, Leaves Carpet (2017) that also sold for a record $780,000 ($998,400 with fees) and a come hither pre-sale estimate of $120,000 to $180,000.

A more familiar and famous entry, one backed by a third-party guarantee, was Elizabeth Peyton’s page-sized rocker duo, Earl’s Court (Liam and Noel) from 1996, featuring Oasis frontman Liam Galagher kissing his brother Noel. It sold for $1.5m ($1.9m with fees).

Price points quickly escalated with Ed Ruscha’s text aided mountain-scape Me (1999) in acrylic on canvas that sold to the London private dealer Francis Outred for $5.6m ($6.9m with fees). It came to market naked, without a stitch of guarantee.

A number of illustrious women artists were part of the big mix, including Alma Thomas’s multi-coloured, concentric ringed abstraction, Pinks of Cherry Blossoms (1970) which bloomed at $3.1m ($3.9m with fees). Helen Frankenthaler’s huge radiant canvas Cape Orange (1964), standing 120in tall, sold to another telephone bidder for $5.8m ($7.2m with fees).

Agnes Martin’s Minimalist composition, Untitled #10 (1981), imbued with nearly invisible hand-drawn horizontal lines of cobalt coloured pencil markings, made $7.2m ($8.9m with fees) and Joan Mitchell’s lushly verdant Loom II (1976), possibly titled or inspired by a Van Gogh painting, brought $6.3m ($7.8m with fees).

Willem de Kooning made another bravado appearance with the rapturous and colour packed Untitled III (1975), considered part of a celebrated series after the artist left New York City for the calm greenery and ocean breezes of East Hampton. Making its auction debut, it went for $23.5m ($26m with fees), surprisingly shy of its $25m low estimate.

Of the few European interlopers, Lucio Fontana’s staccato punctured and sublime ode to a fabled city, Concetto Spaziale, Il Cielo di Venezia (1961) realised $13.7m ($16.4m with fees). The consignor couple Jean and Terry de Gunzburg bought it at Sotheby’s London in June 2002 for £500,000 (without fees).

The philanthropic minded Gunzburg’s also consigned Mark Rothko’s inky black over purple Untitled abstraction from 1969, an acrylic and ink on paper mounted on canvas which sold for $15m ($16.4m with fees). Both offerings, as well as a snow white Alexander Calder mobile that hammered at $7m, were backed by third party guarantees.

Onwards to the ever more rarified Pop Art front, Andy Warhol’s green-hued, red-lipped Brigitte Bardot (1974), formerly in the collection of the late playboy and photographer Gunter Sachs (who was briefly married to Bardot), shot skywards with the help of six bidders to $21m ($24.8m with fees). It also came to market bare of a guarantee. The head-shot silkscreen portrait was poached from Richard Avedon’s 1959 photograph of the French film star.

Roy Lichtenstein’s Benday dot patterned Half Face with Collar (1963), still vibrant with its Mad Men style fashion, rose to $10.7m ($12.9m with fees). It was included in the artist’s globe-trotting retrospective organised by the Guggenheim Museum in 1993.

In a posthumous league of his own, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown, 1983), 84in square and studded with cryptic texts and the artist’s hypnotic calligraphy, went to another telephone bidder for $45.2m ($52.7m with fees). It was backed by a third party guarantee. First owned by Kamran Diba, the founding director of the long-closed Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, it sold to the anonymous consignor at auction at Christie’s London in February 2013 for £9.3m ($14.6m with fees).

David Hockney’s rolling landscape, The Valley, Mountains in Var (near La Garde Freinet, 1970), squeaked by at $5.3m ($6.5m with fees). It’s the same poolside view from the Provence villa owned by film director Tony Richardson which famously served as the backdrop to Hockney’s record setting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) from 1972 that fetched $90.3m at Christie’s New York in November 2018. Those were the days.

The evening sale action resumes at Christie’s New York on Monday, chock a block with more trophy offerings.