{"id":1913813,"date":"2026-05-01T13:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1913813"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T10:58:41","slug":"the-20-most-expensive-artworks-coming-to-auction-in-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1913813","title":{"rendered":"The 20 Most Expensive Artworks Coming to Auction in May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AN_Web_Graphic_.jpg?w=1024&#8243;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"a-content a-content--offset lrv-a-floated-parent lrv-u-font-family-body lrv-u-line-height-normal lrv-u-font-size-18 lrv-u-position-relative\">\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tApril showers may bring May flowers, but in the art world, the early signs of spring also mean that the auction houses are gearing up for the first of their marquee New York sales. Typically, these auctions, from Christie\u2019s, Sotheby\u2019s, and Phillips, occur over the course of a week, but 2026\u2019s calendar is a bit more fickle, owing to the Venice Biennale opening next week, followed by Frieze New York the following week. Sotheby\u2019s is likely looking to capitalize on the collectors in town for Frieze by holding its \u201cThe Now &amp; Contemporary Evening Auction\u201d on May 14, the day after the fair\u2019s VIP preview. The rest of the evening sales will resume the following week, with Christie\u2019s holding its \u201c20th Century Evening Sale\u201d on May 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe May 2026 auctions will once again serve as a test of the strength of the high-end of the market. Last year\u2019s May sales failed to meet expectations: the three houses\u2019 pre-sale estimates believed they could fetch between $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion, collectively. (Those figures do not include any fees that are tacked onto the buyer.) The cumulative hammer total (sans fees) was a paltry $837.5 million, while the total, inclusive of fees, was just over $1 billion. But November 2025 brought better news, with a total of $2.2 billion (with fees) generated across the three houses. (All but one of the year\u2019s top 10 lots came from the November sales.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAcross the evening sales are multiple works in the eight and nine figures, many of which have stellar provenance, like S.I. Newhouse, whose estate is offering 16 lots, eight of which are among the priciest on offer. Others come from the estates of former MoMA board president Agnes Gund and dealer Marian Goodman. The artists, none of whom are women, are familiar figures at this end of the market, from Picasso and Mondrian to Pollock and de Kooning to Warhol and Twombly. Two living artists, Jasper Johns and Gerhard Richter, also make the cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBelow, a look at the top 20 lots on offer in the May 2026 sales, all of which are priced at $30 million or higher.<\/p>\n<div id=\"pmc-gallery-vertical\">\n<div class=\"c-gallery-vertical-loader u-gallery-app-shell-loader\">\n<ul class=\"pmc-fallback-list-items lrv-a-unstyle-list lrv-u-margin-t-2\">\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Andy Warhol, <em>Do It Yourself (Violin)<\/em>, 1962<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"304\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANDY-WARHOL-Do-It-Yourself-Violin.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a violin next to some fruits that have only partially been painted. Numbers appear in the blank areas.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"304\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANDY-WARHOL-Do-It-Yourself-Violin.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a violin next to some fruits that have only partially been painted. Numbers appear in the blank areas.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $30 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPop artist Andy Warhol may be better known for his paintings of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley (the subject of another work on this list), but he also produced plenty of works contending with the increasingly nonexistent divisions between \u201chigh\u201d and \u201clow\u201d culture. This work mimics the format of a paint-by-numbers painting, with parts of the still life\u2014depicting a violin and bowl of fruit\u2014shown here already colored in. Once owned by storied collectors Emily and Burton Tremaine, the painting was later bought by S. I. Newhouse, whose estate is now selling it at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Jasper Johns, <em>Gray Target<\/em>, 1958<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JASPER-JOHNS-Gray-Target.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a gray target.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JASPER-JOHNS-Gray-Target.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a gray target.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $30 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tUnlike other lots on this list, <em>Gray Target <\/em>has only passed through two galleries\u2014Leo Castelli and Mitchell-Innes &amp; Nash\u2014and had two owners\u2014Ileana and Michael Sonnabend and S. I. Newhouse. As such, it was one of Newhouse\u2019s most prized paintings: he only loaned it out twice after its 1998 acquisition, mostly recently for \u201cJasper Johns: Gray,\u201d which focused on the artist\u2019s use of the titular color and was co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Part of Johns\u2019s seminal \u201cTarget\u201d series from the mid-1950s, <em>Gray Target<\/em> shows that gray really does come in many different tones. Art historian Alan Solomon once called the hue Johns\u2019s favorite color, adding, \u201cFor Johns, gray alone has always offered so great a potential as to be almost inexhaustible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Andy Warhol, <em>Double Elvis [Ferus Type]<\/em>, 1963<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"669\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANDY-WARHOL-Double-Elvis-Ferus-Type.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a man holding a gun two shown two times over.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"669\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ANDY-WARHOL-Double-Elvis-Ferus-Type.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a man holding a gun two shown two times over.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $35 million\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis is one of the 23 paintings of Elvis Presley that Warhol debuted in a storied 1963 exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Drawing on a still from the 1960 film <em>Flaming Stars<\/em>, Warhol screenprints Presley\u2019s image two times over, with one of those times resulting in a spectral version of the King of Rock and Roll. The painting was once owned by collector Elaine Wynn, who bought it in 2012 for $37 million, then sold it in 2018 at Christie\u2019s, where it went for $37 million, this time to the dealer Brett Gorvy. Heading to auction once more at Christie\u2019s, the Warhol painting now has a high estimate of $35 million, which means that, when you adjust its past prices for inflation, the work has steadily declined in value.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Pierre-Auguste Renoir, <em>La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez)<\/em>, 1876\u201377<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"492\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR-La-femme-aux-lilas-Portrait-de-Nini-Lopez.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a woman holding a vase filled with flowers.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"492\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PIERRE-AUGUSTE-RENOIR-La-femme-aux-lilas-Portrait-de-Nini-Lopez.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a woman holding a vase filled with flowers.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $35 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis Renoir portrait once belonged to Alexandre Berthier, 4th Prince de Wagram, who in his short life amassed an impressive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Notably, he donated 17 Renoirs to the French state upon his death at the age of 34 in 1918. <em>La femme aux lilas<\/em>, however, was not among Berthier\u2019s beloved Reniors: he sold it in 1906, about 11 months after he purchased it. The work eventually made its way to Knoedler &amp; Co., once the most storied art gallery in the US, which sold it to Joan Whitney and Charles Shipman Payson. Their daughter, Lorinda Payson de Roulet, who took over as president of the New York Mets after her mother\u2019s death, inherited the work. Painted the same year as his now iconic <em>Bal du moulin de la Galette<\/em>, <em>La femme aux lilas<\/em> shows model Nini Lopez, who would feature in some 20 paintings by Renior made during the mid-1870s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Joan Mir\u00f3, <em>Portrait de Madame K.<\/em>, 1924<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"515\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JOAN-MIRO-Portrait-de-Madame-K.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting of a biomorphic form with tentacles coming out of it, along with many biomorphic forms beneath it.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"515\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JOAN-MIRO-Portrait-de-Madame-K.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting of a biomorphic form with tentacles coming out of it, along with many biomorphic forms beneath it.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $35 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis painting\u2019s ties to Surrealism run deep, and not only because it contains dreamy biomorphic forms similar to other works associated with the movement: the painter Max Ernst, himself a Surrealist, was the work\u2019s first owner. In 2001, when S. I. Newhouse bought the work at Christie\u2019s from the estate of collectors Ren\u00e9 and Jeanne Gaff\u00e9, <em>Portrait de Madame K.<\/em> became the most expensive Mir\u00f3 ever purchased at auction. Now, returning to Christie\u2019s from Newhouse\u2019s holdings, the painting looks to rake in as much as $35 million, putting it within striking distance of re-setting Mir\u00f3\u2019s current $36.9 million record, made in 2012.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Willem de Kooning, <em>Untitled III<\/em>, 1975<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lot-121.-Willem-de-Kooning-Untitled-III.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of thick, colorful squiggles.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lot-121.-Willem-de-Kooning-Untitled-III.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of thick, colorful squiggles.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Sotheby&#8217;s\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $35 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMade shortly after de Kooning\u2019s decampment from Manhattan to East Hampton, <em>Untitled III<\/em> comes from the period when the artist returned to oil painting in the mid-1970s. Measuring more than 7 by 6 feet, this all-over canvas features squiggles in hues like pale pink, mustard yellow, faded cerulean, cadmium red, and pine green\u2014plus some strokes that mix some of those colors together. The work appeared in a 2004 Gagosian exhibition staged to mark the 100th anniversary of the artist\u2019s birth. In her <em>New York Times<\/em> review, critic Roberta Smith described the painting as having \u201ccomparatively workmanlike patches of color that are fairly constant in size and interval, as if the artist were trying to show Robert Ryman a thing or two.\u201d Acquired in 2007 by its consignor, who was identified by Sotheby\u2019s as only \u201can important private collection,\u201d the work is one of the few top lots this season that has been on public view regularly in recent years, having been displayed in four different exhibitions at the Palm Springs Art Museum between 2007 and 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Amedeo Modigliani, <em>Alma\u00efsa<\/em>, 1917<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"398\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AMEDEO-MODIGLIANI-Almaisa.jpg?w=398\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a woman seated in a chair with one hand clasped around its back.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"398\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AMEDEO-MODIGLIANI-Almaisa.jpg?w=398\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a woman seated in a chair with one hand clasped around its back.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images LTD. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $40 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOne of multiple portraits Modigliani painted of the same Algerian woman, this one features his typical sharp black contours and almond-shaped eyes. The painting last sold at auction in 2001, at Phillips, where it sold for a healthy, if unremarkable, $7.1 million. It\u2019s now headed back to sale at Christie\u2019s with an estimate of more than five times that amount. The same collector has held this work for 25 years, though it\u2019s unclear who that might be\u2014the auction house hasn\u2019t said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Pablo Picasso, <em>Arlequin (Buste)<\/em>, 1909<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"487\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Pablo-Picasso-Arlequin-Buste-1909-In-the-region-of-40m.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of an abstracted man's face and arms. The man wears a tricorne hat.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"487\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Pablo-Picasso-Arlequin-Buste-1909-In-the-region-of-40m.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of an abstracted man's face and arms. The man wears a tricorne hat.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Sotheby&#8217;s\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price Tag: $40 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor nearly 75 years, this 1909 Picasso canvas was held by Enrico Donati, a Surrealist painter who died in 2008, and his wife, Adele, who passed away last September.\u00a0The couple paid around $12,000 for it in the 1940s. While its estimate of \u201cin excess of $40 million\u201d is more conservative than the ones for a couple other Picassos on offer this season, the figure is still $10 million more than the one Sotheby\u2019s gave the painting on its last attempt to sell it, shortly after Enrico\u2019s death. It headed to auction without a guarantee (despite rival Christie\u2019s offering one to Adele), and was withdrawn shortly before the sale. This time around, the work has a guarantee and an irrevocable bid, as a Sotheby\u2019s spokesperson confirmed to <em>ARTnews<\/em> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMade less than two years after <em>Les Demoiselles d\u2019Avignon<\/em> (1907), <em>Arlequin (Buste)<\/em> falls squarely in the period in which Picasso is refining his singular approach to Cubism, with the harlequin being among the artist\u2019s favorite subjects. Art historian Theodore Reff, writing in <em>Artforum<\/em> in 1971, posited that Picasso\u2019s interest in harlequins, with their diamond-patterned, multicolored uniforms, \u201care intimately related to Picasso\u2019s most important formal invention, Cubism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Jean-Michel Basquiat, <em>Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)<\/em>, 1983<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jean-Michel-Basquiat-Museum-Security-Broadway-Meltdown.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of scrawled phrases over a drippy black background.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jean-Michel-Basquiat-Museum-Security-Broadway-Meltdown.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of scrawled phrases over a drippy black background.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Sotheby&#8217;s\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $45 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis painting notably appeared in a 1983 Gagosian show in Los Angeles that helped boost Basquiat\u2019s fast-ascendant stardom. Like other highly prized Basquiats, this one contains scrawled phrases and motifs\u2014including the artist\u2019s signature skull\u2014and obliquely addresses racism and class oppression, with the canvas including words such as \u201cHooverville\u201d and \u201cPriceless Art.\u201d The work does, however, have a price\u2014one that is about three times as much as the amount for which it last sold at auction, in 2013, at Christie\u2019s. It\u2019s now making its return to the house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Henri Matisse, <em>Robe noire et robe violette<\/em>, 1938<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/HENRI-MATISSE-Robe-noire-et-robe-violette.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of two faceless female figures seated in chairs before green heart-shaped forms.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/HENRI-MATISSE-Robe-noire-et-robe-violette.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of two faceless female figures seated in chairs before green heart-shaped forms.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $50 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis brushy painting was made by Matisse while he was in Nice during the spring of 1938. After debuting at Paris\u2019s Galerie Paul Rosenberg the year of its creation, <em>Robe noir et robe violette<\/em> showed at \u201cThe 1939 International Exhibition of Paintings\u201d at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. Katharine and Edward Bennett, Jr., of the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, purchased it in 1941 and loaned it to the Art Institute of Chicago multiple times, including once as a two-decade-long span.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Gerhard Richter, <em>Kerze (Candle)<\/em>, 1982<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GERHARD-RICHTER-Kerze-Candle-1.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a lit candle on a table.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GERHARD-RICHTER-Kerze-Candle-1.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of a lit candle on a table.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $50 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThough best known on the market for his abstractions made using squeegees, Richter is equally beloved for his figurative works, most notably his \u201cKerze\u201d series, featuring smudgy images of candles burning in pallid, vacant interiors. (One became the cover of a Sonic Youth album.) Richter has said that the paintings were political for him: in East Germany, candles acted as \u201ca silent protest against the regime.\u201d This one comes to sale at Christie\u2019s from his longtime dealer, Marian Goodman, who died in January, and seems likely to fell Richter\u2019s auction record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Piet Mondrian, <em>Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow<\/em>, 1921<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PIET-MONDRIAN-Composition-with-Large-Red-Plane-Blue-Gray-Black-and-Yellow.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of square-shaped swatches of color grouped together in a grid-like form, with thick black lines separating them.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"488\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PIET-MONDRIAN-Composition-with-Large-Red-Plane-Blue-Gray-Black-and-Yellow.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of square-shaped swatches of color grouped together in a grid-like form, with thick black lines separating them.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $55 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnother work coming from the Newhouse collection, this one was acquired from Mitchell-Innes &amp; Nash in 2000. It was previously owned by former Guggenheim Museum director James Johnson Sweeney and French dealer L\u00e9once Rosenberg, who received it as a gift directly from the artist. Johnson Sweeney exhibited at the Guggenheim in an exhibition titled \u201cPiet Mondrian: The Early Years\u201d in 1957; it was last seen in public in a 1969 Mondrian survey at the Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Orangerie in Paris. Created four years after Mondrian first proposed Neo-Plasticism as an art theory, <em>Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black and Yellow <\/em>comes as \u201cMondrian\u2019s visual vocabulary crystallized into its definitive form,\u201d according to art historian John Milner, per the catalog essay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Pablo Picasso, <em>Homme \u00e0 la guitare<\/em>, 1913<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PABLO-PICASSO-Homme-a-la-guitare-1.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of an abstracted guitar.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PABLO-PICASSO-Homme-a-la-guitare-1.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting of an abstracted guitar.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $55 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPer Picasso\u2019s title, this painting represents a man with a guitar, but the instrument\u2019s player is barely visible amid a pile-up of geometric forms that is typical of the Cubist aesthetic, which the artist often used to envision one subject as though it were seen from many perspectives at once. Picasso\u2019s Cubist paintings are highly prized, both by art historians and marketeers. This one was once owned by the poet Gertrude Stein, then entered the collection of the Museum of Modern Art following her death. Therein ensued some controversy. In 2000, MoMA decided to sell the painting and consigned it to Gagosian gallery. What the museum didn\u2019t expect was that S. I. Newhouse, a board member, then went on to purchase the work for himself, a move that the <em>New York Post<\/em> described as an \u201cinsider sale.\u201d Newhouse subsequently resigned from the board; he died in 2017, and this painting now comes to sale from his estate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Pablo Picasso, <em>T\u00eate de femme (Fernande)<\/em>, 1909<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PABLO-PICASSO-Tete-de-femme-Fernande.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A sculpture of an abstracted head.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PABLO-PICASSO-Tete-de-femme-Fernande.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A sculpture of an abstracted head.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $60 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOne of just two sculptures to crack the top 20 happens to be by Picasso, whose sculptures rarely sell for quite so much money. <em>T\u00eate de femme (Fernande)<\/em> was first created in clay in 1909 at the height of the artist\u2019s Cubist period. It depicts Fernande Olivier, an artist who became Picasso\u2019s first live-in romantic partner; the two had met in 1904 at the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre and she would serve as his muse\u2014and the subject of numerous artworks\u2014for several years, during both his Rose and Cubist periods. This version, which at one point belonged to dealer Ambroise Vollard, last sold at auction in 2001, where it fetched $4.5 million at auction, setting a record for a Picasso sculpture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Roy Lichtenstein, <em>Anxious Girl<\/em>, 1964<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roy-Lichtenstein-Anxious-Girl.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting shows a white woman with blonde hair with a concerned expression.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Roy-Lichtenstein-Anxious-Girl.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A painting shows a white woman with blonde hair with a concerned expression.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $60 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPop artist Roy Lichtenstein is having a Whitney Museum retrospective later this year, though that\u2019s only one reason Christie\u2019s has priced this painting so highly. Its provenance appears to have added value: the painting was once owned by the beloved New York dealer Holly Solomon and her husband Horace. Christie\u2019s hasn\u2019t specified the current seller of this painting, which is based on a similar image that appeared on the cover of a DC Comics publication. In typical Lichtenstein fashion, an array of circles line much of the composition, mimicking the Ben-Day dots that are commonly seen at a smaller scale in images that appear in the mass media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1961<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CY-TWOMBLY-Untitled.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of scribbles and red blotches.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"346\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CY-TWOMBLY-Untitled.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of scribbles and red blotches.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $60 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis untitled painting by Cy Twombly is the first of two pricey lots on this list owned by Agnes Gund, the late collector and philanthropist who served as president of MoMA\u2019s board for more than a decade. The work was first owned by Pierre Janlet, at the time the director general of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; after purchasing it by 1964, Janlet would show it at his museum in a solo exhibition for Twombly in 1965. The work was eventually consigned to New York gallery Stephen Mazoh &amp; Co., where Gund bought it in 1988. This canvas was painted in Rome the same year as other Twombly works now owned by major museums, like <em>Triumph of Galatea<\/em> (Menil Collection, Houston) and <em>The First Part of the Return from Parnassus<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago). \u201cThe transformation completed in these paintings,\u201d catalogue raisonn\u00e9 editor Heiner Bastian writes of Twombly\u2019s 1961 works, \u201cshatters with weightless epigrammatic analogy of those limpid flashes and lingering appropriations and detects a fervent expression in the tragedy and metamorphosis of mutating, ever fateful identities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Mark Rothko, <em>No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)<\/em>, 1964<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rothko-No.-15-Two-Greens-and-Red-Stripe.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of a big green square and a darker green rectangle separated by a bright red line.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Rothko-No.-15-Two-Greens-and-Red-Stripe.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of a big green square and a darker green rectangle separated by a bright red line.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: around $80 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tRothko was among the artists that Gund personally befriended. She even bought this seven-foot-tall abstraction following a visit to the Abstract Expressionist\u2019s studio, making it one of the select few works purchased directly by a collector from the artist still held privately, according to Christie\u2019s, which will now sell the work. Following Gund\u2019s death last year, the painting is coming to auction at a price of around $80 million, poising the canvas to become one of the most expensive Rothkos ever sold.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Jackson Pollock, <em>Number 7A, 1948<\/em>, 1948<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"116\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JACKSON-POLLOCK-Number-7A-1948.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A long, horizontal abstraction composed of tangles of black paint.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"116\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JACKSON-POLLOCK-Number-7A-1948.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A long, horizontal abstraction composed of tangles of black paint.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $100 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s a three-way tie for the priciest lot of this year\u2019s May auctions. First up is Jackson Pollock\u2019s <em>Number 7A<\/em> (1948), which, at nearly 11 feet wide, is likely also the most horizontal canvas coming to market this spring. The canvas debuted in Pollock\u2019s 1949 exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery and would soon be gifted to photographer Herbert Matter by the artist. It would eventually wind up in the important postwar art collection John and Kimiko Powers in 1967, before being owned by A. Alfred Taubman, the onetime owner of Sotheby\u2019s. S. I. Newhouse bought it from Taubman in 2000. According to Christie\u2019s catalog essay, <em>Number 7A <\/em>is the largest of Pollock\u2019s \u201cdrip\u201d paintings left in private hands and one that is rarely exhibited, having last been seen publicly in a 1977 exhibition at the Whitney Museum. Writing in the <em>Nation<\/em> shortly after that Parsons exhibition, Clement Greenberg said the exhibition \u201ccontinued his astounding progress. The general quality that emerged from such pictures seemed more than enough to justify the claim that Pollock is one of the major painters of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i, <em>Dana\u00efde<\/em>, ca. 1913<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"534\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CONSTANTIN-BRANCUSI-Danaide.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A sculpture of an abstracted head on a pedestal.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"534\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CONSTANTIN-BRANCUSI-Danaide.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"A sculpture of an abstracted head on a pedestal.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Christie&#8217;s Images Ltd. 2026\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $100 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLike many sculptures by Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i, this one pares down a familiar form to its basics, crafting a human face from little more than a gold-leafed orb of bronze, with two arcing lines and a small dash to respectively communicate a face and mouth. That human face is thought to have been influenced by that of Margit Pogany, a Hungarian art student who regularly acted as a model for the Romanian modernist. <em>Dana\u00efde<\/em> last sold in 2002 for $18.2 million at Christie\u2019s, where it was bought on behalf of S. I. Newhouse, minting a record for both the artist and any sculpture ever publicly sold at auction. Headed back to sale at more than five times that amount following Newhouse\u2019s death in 2017, the piece could re-set the former benchmark, though it\u2019s not likely to upend the latter, which stands at $141.3 million, for an Alberto Giacometti sculpture sold in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item-wrap lrv-u-margin-b-2\">\n<article class=\"pmc-fallback-list-item\">\n<h2>Mark Rothko, <em>Brown and Blacks in Reds<\/em>, 1957<\/h2>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"592\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-Rothko-Brown-and-Blacks-in-Reds-1957.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of two brown rectangles sandwiching a red rectangle.\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"592\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Mark-Rothko-Brown-and-Blacks-in-Reds-1957.jpg?w=400\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"An abstract painting composed of two brown rectangles sandwiching a red rectangle.\"><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Sotheby&#8217;s\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \"><strong>Price tag: $100 million<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTied for the season\u2019s priciest lot is Mark Rothko\u2019s <em>Brown and Blacks in Reds <\/em>(1957), which comes to the secondary market via the collection of the late financier-turned-dealer Robert Mnuchin. This Rothko is emblematic of the postwar artist\u2019s mature period, featuring a dark red background in which three blurred rectangles of brown, bright red, and black fade into each other the longer you stare at it. The canvas also has a storied provenance, having been sold by Rothko\u2019s dealer at the time, Sidney Janis, to the Seagram Collection, which hung it in the lobby of New York\u2019s Seagram Building, and prompted the company to commission Rothko\u2019s famed Seagram Murals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShortly after the French entertainment conglomerate Vivendi bought Seagram, it put <em>Brown and Blacks in Reds<\/em> up for auction at Christie\u2019s New York in 2003, where it sold for just $6.7 million (about $12.1 million in today\u2019s dollars). It was the second highest sum paid at that sale, which was led by another Rothko, 1958\u2019s <em>No. 9 (White and Black on Wine)<\/em>, which was consigned by Fran\u00e7ois Pinault, and also scooped up by Mnuchin for $16.3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tNow, Mnuchin\u2019s estate is looking to turn a major profit on the work 23 years later. If it sells for the high estimate of $100 million, that would work out to 15 times its past figure. While its low estimate of $70 million would, if achieved, only have the work crack Rothko\u2019s top five auction results (not accounting for the Gund Rothko mentioned above which hits the block four days after this one), the high estimate of $100 million would, if realized, make it the priciest Rothko ever sold at auction, besting his <em>Orange, red, yellow<\/em> (1961), which sold for $86.9 million in 2012 (about $125 million in today\u2019s money).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/list\/art-news\/market\/most-expensive-artworks-may-2026-new-york-auctions-1234783216\/&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AN_Web_Graphic_.jpg?w=1024&#8243;] April showers may bring May flowers, but in the art world, the early signs of spring also mean that the auction houses are gearing up for the first of their marquee New York sales. Typically, these auctions, from Christie\u2019s, Sotheby\u2019s, and Phillips, occur over the course of a week, but 2026\u2019s calendar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1913813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1913813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1913813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1913813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1913813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}