Sotheby’s Marquee Sales in New York: Rothko, Basquiat, Picasso Lead May 2026 Auctions

Sotheby’s New York will hold its Marquee Sales from May 14 to 20, 2026, featuring over a century of art. The season opens with the collection of Robert Mnuchin, estimated at over $130 million. The highlight is Mark Rothko's 'Brown and Blacks in Reds' (1957), estimated between $70 and $100 million. The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction is led by Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)' (1983), estimated over $45 million. Other contemporary works include Willem de Kooning's 'Untitled III' (1975), offered at auction for the first time, Andy Warhol's portrait of Brigitte Bardot from the Gunter Sachs collection, and Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto spaziale, Il cielo di Venezia' from the de Gunzburg collection. The Modern Evening Auction features Pablo Picasso's 'Arlequin (Buste)' (1909), estimated over $40 million, and Vincent van Gogh's 'La Moisson en Provence' (1888), a work on paper from his Arles period, described as the principal example of this group still in private hands. Provenance is a key theme, with collections from Mnuchin, Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, and Sybil Shainwald. The sales are seen as a test for the high-end market, which remains polarized and stable at the top, with New York as a central hub.