Rothko painting sold for $73 million

The record price for postwar art was broken twice at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2007, first with a painting by Francis Bacon and later with a Mark Rothko painting, which went for almost $73 million.

The 1950 Rothko painting, “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose),” of blocks of color, sold for $72.8 million to an anonymous bidder.

Shortly before, a 1962 Bacon painting of a pope, “Study from Innocent X,” sold to an anonymous bidder for $52.6 million.

Another work, an untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1981, sold Tuesday for $14.6 million, setting an auction record for the artist.


Rothko, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950


Bacon, Study from Innocent X, 1962


Basquiat, untitled, 1981

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