During the November Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York a masterpiece by Rothko is estimated to sell for $25,000,000 – 35,000,000

Latest news from the American Sotheby’s in New York where during the next evening auction on 14 November 2019 at 7:00 PM there will be bids for the painting Blue Over Red, created by the American artist Mark Rothko in the critical year of 1953. 

The last auction of this masterpiece (that maybe some of us could still remember) was in 2005 when it was raised to $ 5.6 million. Not bad... But nothing similar to an estimate between 25 million and 35 million has been communicated in the recent days. This painting was in the same collection from the 2007 and, as declared by David Galperin, the head of the Sotheby's contemporary art evening auctions in New York: "The paintings from the much-praised period of the early 1950s are incredibly rare on auction, so this moment marks a truly important time for a  work performed in 1953". 

Read more about the last  ArtPrice Report 2019: News and Trend!

In times when the eight-figure prices for lots seem to disappear from auctions to be sold privately, this artwork by Rothko will represent one of the few expected exceptions for the coming months. It is crucial to remember that this work belongs to the part of his series of 16 paintings executed in 1953, with the half of these works remaining inside the important museum collections,  including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

History of the work...

Legendary dealer and collector Harold Diamond acquired Blue Over Red directly from the artist in 1957. Diamond owned seven Rothko paintings during his life, three of which are now in the prestigious museum collections. Subsequently, Blue Over Red spent decades with Baltimore collectors Israel and Selma Rosen, who offered the work at auction in 2005, when it sold for $5.6 million. It has remained in the same private collection since 2007. 

The painting will be on public view in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning 1 November.

Cover image: Mark Rothko, Blue Over Red, 1953, estimate $25,000,000 – 35,000,000. Courtesy by Sotheby’s. 

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