Rothko Reigns at Sotheby’s New York
3 min read · 01 Jun 2026
Mark Rothko's Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957), sold for $85.78m with fees, leading Sotheby's Mnuchin sale in New York on May 14. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Mark Rothko was the king of New York’s marquee sales in May, with his works fetching a combined $232m—outstripping even Jackson Pollock.
Most of that came from two Rothkos consigned by financier-turned-dealer Robert Mnuchin. Sotheby’s Mnuchin sale got the auction house off to a flying start on May 14 when Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957) fetched $85.8m with fees and Mnuchin’s second Rothko fetched $20.8m. The sale of a Agnes Gund’s $98.4m Rothko played its part, albeit at Christie’s.
The white-glove Mnuchin sale contributed to Sotheby’s scoring an impressive B on the HENI Auction Index, an improvement on its C in May 2025 but down on its A+ last November.
Sotheby’s scored a B on the HENI Auction Index, an improvement on its C in May 2025 but down on its A+ for last November's marquee week.
The HENI Auction Index is based on more than ten metrics, including the share of works selling above their low estimate. This was nearly three percentage points higher than average at Sotheby's, but the proportion exceeding their high estimate was in line with the norm.
All 11 works in the Mnuchin sale were backed by guarantees, including the outperformer on the night, Willem de Kooning’s 1970 untitled abstract, which sold for $10.8m with fees, two and a half times its low estimate.
The number of such works with what could be described as strong guarantees was up 2.4 percentage points above the norm. The share of lots with weak guarantees, selling for near or below their low estimate, was also up by 2.4 percentage points, however.
Among the positive metrics was the share of works bought in, which was 8 percentage points below the norm. The number of works withdrawn just before they were due to be sold in line with the norm.
The average number of bidders was also positive, at 2.9 compared to the average of 2.8.
One area where the May auctions underperformed was in artists’ records, although there were 12 in total. One of them was for Kenneth Noland, whose Circle (1958) sold for nearly $5.5m with fees.
While Christie’s grabbed many of the headlines in May, Sotheby’s will have reasons to be positive even if its sales lacked the fireworks that accompanied the launch of its Breuer building last fall courtesy of Leonard Lauder.
More than 700 works were consigned to the six sales, which matched the average, as did the nearly $909m total revenue when adjusted for inflation.
The share of works selling above their low estimate was nearly three percentage points higher than average. Those exceeding their high estimate was in line with the norm.
The share of lots with weak guarantees, selling for near or below their low estimate, was up by 2.4 percentage points but those with strong guarantees was also above the norm.
The share of works bought in was 8 percentage points below the norm.
The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio was 1.3 and in line with the norm.
The average number of bidders was positive at 2.9 compared to the average of 2.8.
There were 12 new artists’ auction records, which was below average.
Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here.
Get the HENI News Daily Art Digest delivered to your inbox