Mark Rothko Painting Sells For $75 Million

A Mark Rothko painting sold on November 13 for $75.1 million while Sotheby’s auction house set a record on Tuesday night when auctioneers moved $375,149,000 in goods in a single night. The auction house bested its previous record by more than $13 million.

The painting, whose price included auction fees, is titled No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue). The painting was purchased by an anonymous bidder. The painting is the second highest price ever paid for a Rothko, and it sold for far above estimates of $35 to $50 million.

Earlier in the year, a Rothko painting titled Orange, Red, Yellow fetched $87 million.

No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is a ten foot tall painting that was personally selected by Rothko for his 1954 solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After leaving the Art Institute, the painting was in a private collection for three decades before it was consigned to Anne Marion of Forth Worth, Texas.

The Rothko wasn’t the only winner on Tuesday night. Jackson Pollock’s Number 4, 1951 sold for $40.4 million, and Francis Bacon’s Untitled (Pope) sold for $29.8 million

Also selling over the $19 million price point was Willem de Kooning’s Abstraction, which sold for $19.7 million.

Sotheby’s also helped move a Gerhard Richter painting titled Abstraktes Bild for $17.4 million.

Auction favorite Andy Warhol also brought in $16.3 million for the 1964 print titled Suicide. 

With this newest haul, Sotheby’s has managed to rake in more than $1 billion in 2012. Speaking of the auction house’s enormous haul,  Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, said in a statement:

”If you’re looking for evidence that today’s market is alive and well, look no further.”