IANS
New York : The post auction scene at Sotheby's here was more exciting than the $72.8 million record set by abstract master Mark Rothko at the auction house's contemporary art sale. Rothko's rich returns in the hands of 91-year-old philanthropist David Rockfeller Sr. was on everybody's lips.
The monumental, hot-hued painting by Mark Rothko became the most expensive work of post-war art sold at auction when it fetched $72.8 million Wednesday night at Sotheby's in New York.
Dealers all over the room were very clear that the stature of seller David Rockefeller Sr. helped propel "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" over the artist's previous $22.4 million auction record.
It also proclaimed a comparative degree because the price trounced the previous record of a Willem de Kooning that sold for $27.1 million in November 2006. "White Center" had a presale estimate of $40 million.
Rockefeller acquired the painting in 1960 for $8,500 (about $59,000 in current dollars) on the advice of curator Dorothy Miller of New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
"I had gotten a Rothko for him," the late Miller told an interviewer in 1971. "One of the early ones with lots of colour, a beautiful one. He wanted to have it in his office."
Sotheby's sources said the painting had hung in Rockefeller's office at Chase Manhattan Bank along with a Chinese statue that had belonged to his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, one of MoMA's founders. Rockefeller was the bank's chairman.
Philanthropist Rockefeller has said he will donate the proceeds of the Rothko sale to an as-yet-unnamed charity. Rothko's work which is considered to be a mirror of modern fragmented times has proved that Rockfeller and Rothko together counted for the high pitch of the auction record.
"I think the legitimacy of having a Rockfeller painting in your collection is what tipped the furious bidding," said a New York dealer in the room.
The Rothko sale came midway through Sotheby's highly anticipated 74-lot auction of post-war and contemporary art, estimated to total as much as $265 million.
Are art prices in any way linked to previous sales? No says the historic auction. Art prices no longer appear to be tethered. Rockfeller's reputation hinges on the truth that art prices in the modern millennium are driven by a global club of billionaires with virtually unlimited budgets.
But at the end of the day, Rockfeller's reputation is huge and dividends paid off! Whoever said "what's in a name?" Millions by the looks of it.