Paintings sell at auction every day. Blue-chip artworks often sell for millions. Still, the luminous red rectangular abstract by Mark Rothko going under the hammer for a staggering $85.8 million was a marked occasion. Why? Because it demonstrated the power of art in the easiest way mankind understands, money. The seller of the 1957 work, Brown and Blacks in Reds, was Goldman Sachs banker-turned-art dealer Robert Mnuchin, who paid $6.7 million for it in 2003. More than two decades later, an anonymous telephone bidder at Sotheby’s paid over $85 million for the same canvas, turning it into a gross gain of more than $79 million. That works out to roughly a 1,181 percent return, or about 12.8 times the original price.
In art terms, the result was just as remarkable. The work that delivered the second-highest auction result for a Rothko was painted in 1957, when the artist was at the height of his powers. Nearly eight feet tall, the monumental creation came from Rothko’s most coveted mature period and was the first Rothko bought for the Seagram collection. Phyllis Lambert acquired it for the company, and the painting remained the only Rothko actually installed inside the Seagram Building until Mnuchin acquired it at auction.
The artwork had several reasons to enamor onlookers. First, it was a red Rothko, and collectors have long shown a particular appetite for the artist’s glowing red canvases. This one delivered that seductive warmth in full force, with its radiant red field merging into darker brown and black forms. Then there was the scale. With its sheer size, the work does not merely hang in a room, it takes over the space, creating an almost chapel-like experience that draws viewers in and makes them linger. That immersive quality is part of what made Rothko more than a painter of color, he was a painter of feeling.
Proof of that lies in Mnuchin himself. A man of finance did not amass this painting simply for its financial potential, but for the emotion it carried. That helps explain why works like this continue to captivate both collectors and institutions. The painting had already been displayed at the Tate, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim, giving it the kind of museum pedigree that only deepens its aura.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the work hammered at $74 million, comfortably within its $70 million to $100 million estimate, before reaching $85.8 million with fees. It should also be noted that this was a guaranteed lot, meaning the sale had been financially backstopped before bidding even began. Even so, that detail does little to diminish the appetite for a Rothko.
