Sotheby's May Marquee Sales unveiled | Led by Rothko's $70 - 100M Canvas
Sotheby’s unveils the full offering of The New York Sales, spanning over a century of the defining moments of Modern and Contemporary art.
The sales will open with a dedicated auction of works from celebrated dealer, advisor and collector Robert Mnuchin. The auction brings together some of the most significant examples created by the artists Mnuchin championed, led by Rothko’s monumental Brown and Blacks in Reds, estimated to achieve $70–100m. This will be followed by The Now & Contemporary Art Evening Auction and Day sale, with the Modern Evening Auction and Day sale the following week.
Taking place on 14 May, The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction is led by one of Jean‑Michel Basquiat’s most significant paintings (estimate in excess of $45m). Further highlights include a tranche of additional works from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, led by Mark Rothko (est. $10–15m) and Lucio Fontana (est. $10–15 m); Andy Warhol’s portrait of Brigitte Bardot (est. $14–18m), offered from the Gunter Sachs Collection; as well as important works making their auction debut including Willem de Kooning’s Untitled III (est. $25–35m) and Roy Lichtenstein’s Half Face with Collar (est. $10–15m). The sale also features seminal works from the Collection of Jennifer Gilbert, sold to benefit her forthcoming foundation, Lumana Detroit. Rounding out the auction is a selection of best‑in‑class Color Field paintings by Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, and Alma Thomas, alongside works by cutting‑edge voices shaping 21st‑century art, including Ding Shilun and Joseph Yaeger, whose works mark the artist’s debut in a New York evening auction.
The Modern Evening Auction on 19 May brings together exceptional works from prestigious collections which span the entire arc of modernism, from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to important works by women surrealists. The auction is led by Pablo Picasso’s Arlequin (Buste), (est. in excess of $40m), a striking early exploration of the harlequin motif created at a pivotal moment on the threshold of Cubism, alongside Wassily Kandinsky’s Rote Tiefe (Red Depth) (est. $12–18m).
Further highlights announced today include Vincent van Gogh’s La Moisson en Provence (est. $25–35m), an extraordinarily vivid and rare watercolor from the artist's Arles period, and Henri Matisse’s La Chaise lorraine (est. in excess of $25m), a luminous Nice interior. There is also the collection of David and Shoshanna Wingate, led by Alberto Giacometti’s La Clairière (Composition avec neuf figures) (est. $18–25m), one of his most important multi-figural sculptures of the postwar period, alongside works by Diego Giacometti, Mark Rothko, and a rare Tiffany Studios “Wisteria” lamp (est. $600,000–800,000).
Further collections highlight the sale, including works from the collection of Sybil Shainwald, which brings together a compelling group of European modernist and surrealist works, including René Magritte’s Femme-bouteille (est. $800,000–1.2m) and Dorothea Tanning’s Témoins du drame (est. $1–1.5m).
Main Image: Mark Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957). Courtesy of Sotheby's.