Mark Rothko's luminous canvas 'Orange, Red, Yellow' sold for $87 million at Christie's auction last night, breaking the record for the highest selling postwar and contemporary artwork sold at auction.
Rothko's work sold alongside work by Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Alexander Calder, Gerhard Richter and Yves Klein at the Christie's auction on Tuesday May 8, 2012, the evening totaled $388.5 million (£240.5m).
The New York Times reported that there was an unusually large array of Abstract Expressionist paintings at the auction, which the publication says was due in part to Christie's having won property from the collection of David Pincus who, with his wife Geraldine, had collected paintings and sculptures by Rothko, Pollock, Newman and de Kooning for decades.
Pollock's 'Number 28, 1951' sold for $20.5 million to a telephone bidder.
Newman's 'Onement V' sold to a telephone bidder for $22.4 million and Klein's 'FC1' also sold for a a record price of $36.4 million.
Only last week, Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' sold for a record $119.9 million (22.6m), proving forecasts that May was tipped to be a very big month for several auction houses selling Impressionist, modern and contemporary artwork this month.
