Auction house Christie’s reportedly sold a painting by artist Mark Rothko for more than $100 million in January. Although the buyer, seller and specific artwork are officially confidential, a dealer familiar with the deal said it was Rothko’s 1951 painting “No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red).”
The source also said that it was Dimitry Rybolovlev, a Russian billionaire and art collector, who sold the painting. He purchased it in 2014 for a reported 140 million euros. The buyer is supposedly Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund billionaire, who is a major collector of expensive artwork.
In 2023, Christie’s closed $1.2 billion in private sales and $5 billion in public sales. The most expensive piece of artwork it sold last year in a public auction was Monet water lily painting for $74 million.
