The Sotheby's auction house sold a Rothko painting for one billion koruna

New York - At an auction at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday, a radiant canvas titled No. 21 (Red, Brown, Black and Orange) by painter Mark Rothko was sold for 45 million dollars (995 million crowns). On the second day of the auction of contemporary and post-war artists, canvases sold at Sotheby's for 344 million dollars (7.6 billion crowns).
American of Russian descent Rothko died in 1970, and his work No. 21 was sold from the estate of patrons Pierre and Sao Schlumberger, who acquired the canvas directly from the artist. Both were part of the cultural elite in New York and Paris until the end of their lives, helping to finance restoration work at Versailles and were patrons of many museums, including the Pompidou Center in Paris.
The canvas No. 21 from 1951 has never been auctioned before; it was exhibited for the first time in 1952 at a New York exhibition of modern American painters. It was estimated that at Sotheby's it could be sold for up to 50 million dollars.
Another success of Tuesday's auction was Jasper Johns' Flag, which fetched 36 million dollars. Unlike Rothko's painting, it brought in much more than the originally expected 15 to 20 million.
Among the hits of Tuesday's sale were also paintings by Andy Warhol. The portrait of Elizabeth Taylor from 1963 sold for 31.5 million dollars, the Self-Portrait for 11.3 million, and the portrayal of Brigitte Bardot for 11.6 million dollars.